The world need to put the food security for the poorest at the top priority and agree on a roadmap for the Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security to deal with the "silent tsunami" of the food price crisis, said Ivan Lewis, British Vice –Minister for International Development.

He made that call in his article to mark the launch of Global Partnership for Agriculture and Food Security at the High Level Meeting of Food Security for All chaired by United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Spanish Prime Minister Rodriguez Zapatero in Madrid on Jan. 26 and 27.

"China was also exposed to high food prices in 2008 but, according to a recent UNICEF report, was able to rapidly respond and avert major impacts. There is a lot the world could learn from China," said Mr. Lewis in that article.

Mr. Lewis called for persistent global attention and better international coordination and efforts on agricultural development and access to food for the most vulnerable as the world population will continue growing and the inter-dependence of the world community for "financial, fuel and "most of all food security is becoming increasingly evident" .

The roadmap for the Global Partnership, if agreed, said Mr. Lewis, would deliver "a serious and sustained doubling of efforts" from the global to country level on the food security issue. He added that such a partnership can has "an important monitoring role to ensure donors, developing countries and other partners are held to account for their promises".

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization estimated that the population struggling in hunger in the world has risen to 963 million against 923 million in 2007. Food prices, although have fallen back to the 2007 level, remain high compared to pre-food crisis levels. The December FAO Food Price Index is 28 percent higher that that of 2005 and 61 percent above the 2000 level.

According to the latest report by Xinhua, the two-day meeting attended by delegates from 126 countries and international organizations, NGOs, concluded with a statement reaffirming the conclusions of the World Food Summit in 1996 and the objectives confirmed by the World Food Summit in Rome in 2001 to achieve food security through an ongoing effort to eradicate hunger in all countries.

By People's Daily Online