East Africa: 20 million need aid

In Eastern Africa, the situation is mainly serious as drought and conflict has put an estimated 20 million people in need of food aid.

FAO Assistant Director General Hafez Ghanem said food prices in poor countries that are net importers of food still remain stubbornly high despite a good 2009 world cereal production.

The report was published ahead of the Rome World Summit on Food Security to be held on November 16-18. “For the world’s poorest people who spend up to 80 percent of their household budgets on food, the food price crisis is not over yet,” Ghanem said. “It is now a global priority to increase investment in developing country agriculture in order to fight poverty and hunger,” he said.

FAO is hosting a “Hunger Summit” at its headquarters in Rome from 16-18 November 2009. The summit aims to securing a broad consensus on the immediate reduction of hunger with a focus on boosting public and private investment in agricultural development in poor countries.

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