Averting a full-blown global food crisis calls for long-term steps

Soaring food prices are forcing millions of Filipinos into poverty, the Asian Development Bank said in a study released here Sunday.

MANILA: When the Australian miner Rusina started to extract nickel from its mining concession on the island of Luzon in March, the first major problem it faced was what to do about a highly organized illegal mining operation. The illegal miners working on Rusina's property did not feel the need to conceal their activity. Dozens of trucks, bearing the logo of a local contractor, lined up at the mine site to cart the stolen nickel ore away. "The brazenness is incredible," Rusina Mining's managing director, Robert Gregory, said.

According to the latest global report card, India ranks 27th along with Ghana and Eritrea when it comes to providing basic healthcare to its children, which includes life-saving interventions like prenatal care, skilled childbirth, immunization and treatment for diarrhoea and pneumonia. Over 53% children in India under five years

MANILA: A struggle for control has broken out at the largest power utility in the Philippines after the government put pressure on it to cut rates, and analysts say the dispute could affect privatization of the power sector. The state pension fund, Government Service Insurance System, or GSIS, has called for a management revamp at Manila Electric, or Meralco, in a bid to drive down rates. "I believe we can only bring down rates if we change management and put in somebody who can initiate reforms," said Winston Garcia, president of GSIS.

Sir, Contrary to Martin Wolf's article "Food crisis is a chance to reform global agriculture' (April 30), the riots or disturbances that have, unfortunately, taken place in some parts of the world have not occurred in the Philippines. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her administration have been working diligently to address challenges arising from the slowdown in the global economy combined with the spike in high oil and food prices.

Dec 26 2004 TSUNAMI At least 230,000 people are killed and 43,000 are missing after a tsunami sparked by a magnitude 9.15 earthquake smashes into 13 Indian Ocean countries. More than half the victims are Indonesians, with Sri Lanka and India next worst hit. March 2005 INDONESIA Nearly 1,000 people are killed after an earthquake of magnitude 8.7 strikes off the island of Sumatra. July/Aug 2005 INDIA More than 1,000 people are killed after the heaviest rainfall recorded drenches the western state of Maharashtra. Oct 8 2005 PAKISTAN

The Asian Development Bank on Saturday called for immediate action from global governments to combat soaring food prices and pledged fresh financial aid to help feed the Asia Pacific region's poorest nations. The ADB set out a plan of short- and medium-to-longer-term assistance work, including financial support, to protect the most vulnerable groups as well as programmes to mitigate the immediate impact on the poor of soaring food prices. Following is a summary of the plan. SHORT TERM ASSISTANCE

At around 5 p.m. on April 2, local police and officers from the Philippines National Bureau of Investigation descended on a four-story warehouse in suburban Manila. They were acting on a tip-off about possible illicit activity. But the agents weren't searching for drugs or knockoff Rolexes. They were looking for rice.