Developing countries are fighting hard to retain the right to increase farm im-port tariffs in spite of slashing them rapidly to cope with the global food crisis. Faint signs of progress in the troubled "Doha round" of global trade talks last week in Geneva were imperilled by a fresh dispute over poor countries' ability to protect their farmers with tariffs.

A warning from U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on the possible consequences of the rise in global food prices, together with the plight of the world's poorest nations, dominated the start of a major U.N. trade conference Sunday in Ghana's capital. "If not handled properly, this food crisis could trigger a cascade of others and develop into a multiple crisis, becoming a multi-dimensional problem affecting economic growth, social progress and even political security around the world,' Ban warned delegates.

The Chief Minister, Shivraj Singh Chouhan has said that it is necessary to procure maximum quantity of wheat on support price for ensuring success of Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojana, under which wheat would be supplied at the rate of Rs three per kg to poor families from fair price shops. Keeping this target in mind, commissioners, collectors and all the concerning officers must act on a war footing and make concerted arrangements for immediate payment to farmers apart from transportation and storage of wheat.

Sending warning signals to the UPA Government, the Left and UNPA leaders on Saturday came together to attack it on the issue of price rise. They also courted arrest. The leaders, including CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury, CPI's D Raja, RSP's Abani Roy, Samajwadi Party General Secretary Amar Singh, were arrested while marching towards the Prime Minister's Office to hand over a memorandum. Making it clear that the issue of price rise would be effectively used to float a common policy platform, the Left and UNPA leaders threatened to intensify their agitation.

Amid demands that the Left parties save the country rather than the government, the entire Left leadership on Saturday courted arrest in the capital along with leaders of the United National Progressive Alliance (UNPA) in protest against rising prices. Part of the week-long joint action planned by the Left parties and UNPA on the issue, the protest was preceded by a convention in which the Government came under attack for its

Soaring food prices have hampered Asia's fight against poverty and some countries may need foreign aid to feed their hungry millions, the Asian Development Bank president said Friday. "The current food price inflation has already affected the pace of poverty reduction in some countries," Haruhiko Kuroda said. "Poverty reduction has been very rapid in many Asian economies but the current high food price inflation has really affected poor people in the region, particularly in low income countries like Bangladesh."

Soaring food prices have hampered Asia's fight against poverty and some countries may need foreign aid to feed their hungry millions, the Asian Development Bank president said on Friday.

Today's high prices of food around the world are the result of the continued failure of large, populous economies such as India and China to reach food self-sufficiency or even near self-sufficiency. In India, successive governments since 1991 have ignored the real economy that is agriculture and pushed it to the background. The country is now paying a heavy price for this, says G. CHANDRASHEKHAR.

No need for alarm; but some Chinese ring bells anyway

Global food shortages have taken everyone by surprise. What is to be done? Reuters SAMAKE BAKARY sells rice from wooden basins at Abobote market in the northern suburbs of Abidjan in C