Soaring Global Wheat Prices Increase Hunger for Millions of Afghans

(KABUL, Afghanistan) - The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Government of Afghanistan today urged the international community to fund a sharp increase in needed food assistance for poor persons and families in Afghanistan who cannot afford to pay soaring local prices for wheat, a staple of the Afghan diet.

Under the "Joint Government/UN Appeal on the Humanitarian Consequences of the Rise in Food Prices," and in addition to its already extensive programmes of food assistance across Afghanistan, WFP has asked for immediate contributions of US$ 77 million to supply 89,000 tonnes of food to assist an additional 2.55 million Afghan people, living in both rural and urban areas, through June 2008.

"Afghanistan faces so many hardships – and now global increases in the price of wheat mean that bread, the basic staple of the Afghan diet, is out of reach for millions of Afghanis," said Rick Corsino, WFP Country Director in Afghanistan.

"We must act now to keep wheat and bread affordable for Afghanis living in both cities and rural areas where domestic production is not enough to satisfy needs."

Global food prices, particularly of wheat, have risen to all-time highs in the last 12 months, and have adversely affected millions of Afghans, for whom wheat flour is the food staple used in making bread.

A recent Afghan Government and WFP analysis of the impact of higher prices on food accessibility revealed that wheat flour prices have increased dramatically in the past year, over 60 percent higher nationwide, and as high as 80 percent in some locations. 2..55 million (1.41 million in rural areas and 1.41 million in urban and semi-urban areas) Afghanis may have fallen into the category of high food insecurity (from borderline food insecurity) owing to the prices rises. This has placed those already vulnerable at risk of sliding deeper into food insecurity.

"Food poverty is now a real threat, not just in the remote regions of this country, but now also in Afghanistan's urban areas," said Corsino.

"The international community must renew its efforts to help the people through what remains a very difficult time. We must now also undertake food interventions in urban areas, where the food price increases also have a direct impact on daily paid labours, meaning that, the wage earners must spend a much larger share of income to buy food."

The planned WFP intervention seeks to provide family food rations to 235,000 households in rural areas and 190,000 urban households most affected by the rise in food prices and not presently supported through on-going WFP interventions.

The food assistance, which will help these households maintain what assets they have, will include the provision, from February to June 2008, of 43,000 tons of assorted commodities (i.e. 35,000 tons of wheat, 4,200 tons of pulses, 2,800 tons of vegetable oil and 700 tons of iodized salt) in rural areas; and 46,000 tons of wheat in urban and semi-urban areas. The joint Government/UN Appeal also includes interventions by UNICEF, WHO and other UN agencies working in Afghanistan.

"It can take three to five months to translate a donation into food assistance on the ground, so urgent donations are urgently needed," said Corsino.

The 89,000 tonnes of food required in the joint Government/UN Appeal launched today is on top of the 180,000 tonnes of food that WFP plans to distribute in 2008 for nearly 3.7 million.