Feed more hungry people for less money - help them plant!

Rein Paulsen
The Jakarta Post, Indonesia

A few weeks ago, we all woke up to a global milieu that we thought belonged to history. Billions of people have already struggled through the last two years; acute hunger skyrocketed and the threat of famine once again returned.

Now, with war impacting a major global breadbasket that supplies many regions with staple food exports, international food commodities markets are being disrupted even further. Countries around the world are coming to grips with the fact that our interconnected global economy and planet-spanning food supply chains are more fragile than we thought.

Across the world, countries that rely on food imports are worried - rightly so. Millions of people - often in rural, agricultural areas - are contending with high levels of hunger and food insecurity, no longer able to get a crop in the ground, unsure of where their next meal is coming from, perhaps selling off hard-to-replace assets like livestock or tools - in essence, their futures - to buy one more week of food.

Even before the war in Ukraine, the numbers of people suffering food insecurity across our fragile and interconnected planet were already staggering. Yet despite record humanitarian spending, nothing has stemmed the seemingly inexorable upward march of acute hunger. Now, surging prices threaten to raise the food import bills of scores of countries and push up the number of people who do not consume enough caloric energy to live normal lives, by as many as 13 million people during the course of just this year.

Today, we are bracing ourselves for the ripple effects of the war in Ukraine on crises elsewhere in the world. Urgent agricultural activities will feed more people, for less money.

Malaysia suffers fallout of Ukraine war

Editorial
Sin Chew Daily, Malaysia

The eruption of the Russia-Ukraine war after the Covid-19 pandemic has ruptured the supply chains of many everyday necessities, from the production and transportation of raw materials to retail sales, triggering a significant inflationary pressure.

As both Russia and Ukraine are major energy and farm produce exporters, the war between them is set to dramatically disrupt the supply of major commodities worldwide.

Talking about food production, both Russia and Ukraine export some 30 per cent of the world's food, and this shortfall can never be filled by other countries in a short span of time. Russia was the world's second-largest food producer in 2020 at 134 million tonnes, almost 15 per cent of the global total.

Meanwhile, Ukraine exported US$22.2 billion (S$30 billion) worth of agricultural products, about 45 per cent of the country's total exports. Countries like India, Egypt, Turkey, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy, Germany and Poland rely heavily on Ukraine for maize, wheat, sunflower oil and soya. These countries will now have to look for alternative sources of food, and at significantly steeper prices!

The war has also negatively impacted Ukraine's spring sowing season. The global food crisis is not just a possibility but an ongoing process now, and the situation will only get worse in the year to come.

Malaysia's palm oil prices have hit historical highs in recent months, and due to tight supply of food globally, local food prices have climbed steadily. As we import more than 25 per cent of our food, a global food supply inequilibrium could be a prime moving force for spiralling inflation here.

Russia is also the world's largest fertiliser exporter at 15 per cent of the global total. The war is not going to spread to Malaysia in any way, but the prices of crude oil, natural gas, fertilisers and agricultural products will all go up drastically, triggering globalised inflationary chain effects.

Protect China's food security against geopolitical risks

Cui Ningbo and Zhao Duanyang
China Daily, China

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict is expected to further rock global food markets. Global grain and food prices have already been rising, with the prices of wheat, corn and soya bean surging at a rapid pace, because the conflict has affected food production and supply chains.

Thanks to rising grain and energy prices, overall global food prices, too, have been increasing. And in late March, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation predicted food shortages are expected immediately or in the next three months in over 40 per cent of the surveyed areas and cases.

The Ukraine-Russia conflict has also disrupted, though partly, international logistics. On Feb 24, both Russia and Ukraine suspended commercial shipping at their respective Black Sea ports, which means the conflict poses a serious risk to the movement of ships in the Black Sea and could create food shortages for countries that rely on shipping operations to get their food supplies.

Worse, many exporters, including Ukraine and Argentina, have imposed some restrictions on food exports, because they fear potential grain shortage at home.

There is no doubt that the global food supply faces threats.

Given the complex and volatile international situation, therefore, China should take all measures to continue to be self-sufficient in food production and supply, and import only to meet the people's demand for different types and varieties of foods.

Inflation pushing people to the edge

Editorial
The Daily Star, Bangladesh

The unabated rise in prices that we have witnessed for months now has really started to take its toll on low- and middle-income groups. Amid such suffering, the lack of urgency in action and legitimate concern and sympathy shown by the government towards people is shameful.

Reportedly, prices of rice, flour, pulses, oil, fish, meat, vegetables, soap and milk rose by 12 per cent in February. Prices of other essentials, including edible oil, sugar, red lentils, eggs and onions have risen by 10 per cent to 40 per cent in the last one year.

The size of our market dictates that it cannot be controlled by enacting laws alone. It has to be backed up by enforcement.

When people are suffering to the extent that they have been, enforcing price controls should have been the government's No. 1 priority. But in its absence, trade syndicates have been having a field day again, hiking prices of essentials during Ramadan.

• The View From Asia is a compilation of articles from The Straits Times' media partner Asia News Network, a grouping of 23 news media titles.