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Potatoes seen as answer to high cereal costs
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Food scientists are meeting in Cusco, Peru, this week to find ways of boosting world potato production to ease the strain of surging cereal prices on the world’s poorest countries.

Potato production already reached a record high last year as cereal prices rose, partly as a consequence of grain producers – such as the US – switching to bio-fuel crops.

The impact of more expensive cereals has been harshest on developing countries that are dependent on imports.

Grain shortages have led to unrest in parts of Africa and food riots in Egypt, in which at least two people have been killed.

The Cusco conference, which is sponsored by the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation and the Peruvian-based International Potato Centre, aims to expand the role of a crop that scientists say produces more food on less land than maize, wheat or rice.

Developing countries now account for half the world’s production, which stands at 320m tonnes, and in regions such as Asia potatoes are already substituting for more traditional crops. China is now the world’s largest producer.

The scientists at Cusco, meeting in what the UN has designated the International Year of the Potato, are studying improvements in quality and sustainable farming, the development of strains that require less water and that can resist pests, and the impact of climate change.

Some governments have already begun substituting potatoes for grain as a result of rising cereal prices. In Peru, the native crop has been used this year to replace wheat in bread production for the armed forces, schools and prisons.

In Bangladesh, a bumper crop has led the government to include potatoes in basic rations to the poor.

While potato prices have risen in some parts of the world, tracking the rise of cereals, in some regions there have been gluts in production. In West Bengal, Indian farmers are reported to have attempted suicide after facing ruin because prices fell below costs.

The Cusco conference aims to confront such price uncertainty by supporting better methods of linking developing country producers, who are usually small-scale farmers, to commodity markets.

Visit - (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ac4c95c0-fb86-11dc-8c3e-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1)

By Harvey Morris at the United Nation



March 29, 2008 | 8:24 AM Comments  0 comments

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Indian minister attacks biofuels
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

Indian Finance Minister P Chidambaram has said that it is "outrageous" that developed countries are turning food crops into bio fuels.
He said that countries like the US were doing so while the world's poor are struggling with surging food prices.

Delivering a lecture in Singapore, Mr Chidambaram said that using corn and other crops for fuel was a sign of "lopsided priorities".

He said that such an "uncaring" policy had to be strongly condemned.

The finance minister was also critical of "lax supervision", which he said had led to the US mortgage crisis and global economic uncertainty.

'Deprived of food'

Mr Chidambaram said developing economies were shouldering an "enormous burden" from the relentless rise in prices of food and commodities.

He said the situation was worsened by the diversion of food to produce bio fuels in some countries.

Citing the US as an example, he said nearly 20% of corn goes to making bio fuels.

"It is a sign of the lopsided priorities of certain countries that they will resort to measures that will produce fuel at a cheaper cost in order to meet the transport requirements of a section of their population," Mr Chidambaram said.

He said the pursuit of such policies at a time when many in the world could barely afford to eat was "outrageous and... must be condemned".



Corn, soybeans, sugar cane and other crops are seen as sources of clean and cheap biofuels.

Correspondents say this results in less grain available for human consumption, which drives up the prices for basic foodstuffs.

The finance minister said that the prices of maize, rice and wheat have at least doubled between 2004 and last month, while commodities such as crude oil and metals have also spiralled in price.

He said that these rises were damaging for countries like India, which subsidises food and fuel.

Mr Chidambaram also said the rise in oil prices from about $30 a barrel in 2004 to above $100 this year is another example of "greed overtaking the common good of the world".

"Oil producing countries have struck a gold mine. Demand is very high... they think that this is a great time to reap in the profits," he said.

"I understand that from a commercial point of view, but it's hurting the world economy."


March 29, 2008 | 8:24 AM Comments  0 comments

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[Webcast] UN Webcast Schedule for Tuesday, 25 March 2008
Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

UN Webcast Schedule for Tuesday, 25 March 2008

Link to UN Webcast :(http://www.un.org/webcast)

Link to Press Conference Schedule Page ( http://www.un.org/News/ossg/conf)

Channel 1
10:00am Special Event: Commemoration of the International Day of
Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade
(co-organized by the Caribbean Community, the African Union, the European
Union, the United States Mission and the Department of Public Information).

5:30pm Press Conference: Matthew Nimetz, Secretary-General’s Personal Envoy
for Greece and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia Talks on the
latest round of continued discussions.

Channel 2
12:00noon Daily Noon Press Briefing By the Office of the Spokesperson for
the Secretary-General. Guest at noon: Mr. Jorge Sampaio,
Secretary-General's Special Envoy to Stop TB on the Global Tuberculosis
Control 2008.

1:30pm Press Conference: International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of
Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade, with Kiyo Akasaka,
Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information; Harry
Belafonte, Goodwill Ambassador for UNICEF; U.S. Congressman Donald Payne;
and Ambassador Christopher Hackett of Barbados.

Channel 3
10:00am Security Council: The situation in the Middle East, including the
Palestinian question.

Channel 4
10:00am Security Council: The situation in the Middle East, including the
Palestinian question.
*Original Language

Channel 5
Human Right Council: Seventh Session of the Human Right Council.
3-28 March 2008, Geneva (Switzerland)
(http://www.un.org/webcast/unhrc/index.asp)

-----------------------------------------------

UN Webcast - Streaming to the world.
____________________________

We value your feedback. Send your comments, suggestions to webcast@un.org


March 25, 2008 | 4:47 AM Comments  0 comments

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The beauty of Nigeria
Related to country: Nigeria

Translations available in: English (original) | French | Spanish | Italian | German | Portuguese | Swedish | Russian | Dutch | Arabic

And some call Nigeria a failed state!
It is true that the pics in the travelogue do. not represent most of Nigeria.
But which country in the world advertises its ugliest areas to the rest of the world?
Does NY, NY promote itself by showing pictures of slums and projects in Harlem and the Bronx?
Does every town or city in the UK have an Uncle Ben Tower or the equivalent of Trafalgar Square?

We must learn to celebrate what is good about Nigeria just as loudly as we complain about and bemoan what is bad about our only native land.

Please go to this link to see Nigeria that you have never seen before

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGJL7eVyU44