"Apparent improvement" in the diets of people in India and China and consequent food export caps is among the "four causes" that has led to the current global food crisis, feels US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice. The US' top diplomat specifically pointed to exchange rate and the simple "inability" of getting food to the people as being responsible for the worrisome food scarcity.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon yesterday ordered a top level task force to take on the global crisis caused by rising food prices and urged key producer nations to end export bans. The UN chief said the immediate priority must be to "feed the hungry" and called for urgent funding for the World Food Programme. Ban said after a meeting of the heads of 27 key international agencies that the new task force would be led by the UN's top humanitarian official, deputy under-secretary John Holmes.

Famine caused by bamboo flowering is an indirect phenomenon that happens in 30 to 40 years depending on the species of the bamboo. Senior Congress legislator and NEHU Head of Department of Botany Dr RC Laloo told The Sentinel that bamboo flowering does not directly lead to famine but it occurs after rats have shortage of food. He said when rats feed on the high-protein seeds of bamboo, flowers start to reproduce while their population doubles leading to shortage of seeds. Therefore, the rats are left with no option but to attack the paddy fields, Dr Laloo said.

Leading figures from the United Nations met in Switzerland on Monday to chart a solution to dramatic food price increases that have caused hunger, riots and hoarding in poor countries around the world. Vietnam acted to quell panic over rice supplies on Monday, banning speculation in the market after a "chaotic" buying binge in the Southeast Asian nation highlighted growing global fears about food security.

The Food Security and Productivity Enhancement Programme for small farmers has been expanded in 1012 Punjab villages with Rs100 million. A spokesman of Agriculture department on Sunday told APP that federal, provincial and district governments in Punjab would jointly carry out the programme. In Sialkot district, it would be carried out in 72 villages and each village be given funds amounting to Rs1.95 crore for the implementation of the programme while work on the project has been already initiated.