The spikes in global food prices in 2007-8 served as a wake-up call to the global community on the inadequacies of our global food system. Commodity prices doubled, the estimated number of hungry people topped one billion, and food riots spread through the developing world.

The world economy in 2012 is set to grow by just 2.5 percent, weighed down by ripple effects from the 2008 financial crisis, says the World Bank's latest Global Economic Prospects (GEP) 2012.

In poor countries, most governments implement policies aiming to stabilize the prices of staple foods, which often include storage and trade measures insulating their domestic market from the world market.

High food prices have put increasing inflationary pressures across the Asia-Pacific region and threatened food security.