|
|
"The cost of production is going up, so the obvious, rational reaction (to price caps) of the farmer is to reduce planting, which is exactly the opposite of what we want. We want production to increase, not decrease," he said. Nag said governments should instead consider targeted cash income transfers to the poor. The Manila-based bank was ready to provide loans to governments to help ease the situation, he said, but added that no country has made any specific requests yet. "If the governments go for the targeted income support, obviously this will add to the fiscal burden of the governments, so ADB will be very responsive and willing to consider budget support for the government, and providing program loans," he said. In Asia, Nag said, the supply of rice to the region remained adequate even though stocks have slipped to their lowest in decades. "We want to get the focus away from being dramatized or an overreaction to the supply situation. It is tight, no doubt about it," he said. "But it is not a situation when rice is not available in the region as a whole." Nag said, however, that the rapid increase in the price of rice had a "very serious impact" on the region's poor, who spend a large proportion of their income on food. "The prices have increased very dramatically, almost three times in the last one year and almost twice in the last three months," he said. Nag said the hardest hit by rising food prices in the Asia Pacific include 600 million people who survive on a dollar a day or less, and about the same number who live on just above a dollar -- making up a group of about 1.2 billion who are vulnerable. The region's poor usually spend about half of their budgets on food, but recent increases have pushed that proportion to about 80 percent in some parts of South Asia, he said. Related Links: |
advertisement
Put Discovery News on Your Site!
|
