AP
Farmers harvest rice in Depok on the outskirts of Jakarta, Indonesia, Tuesday, April 15. A new UNESCO report says poor farming practices are responsible for one third of degraded land globally.

With the price of foodstuffs soaring, a UNESCO report on the state of world agriculture that was scheduled for release this week is expected to call for urgent action to revamp global farming rules.

Three years in the making, the report has taken on greater urgency amid recent, violent riots over rising food prices in countries like Haiti, Egypt and the Philippines.

The authors of the report - which brought together 400 contributors including scientists, government officials, activists and business people - say farming is responsible for more than a third of the most deteriorated land in the world, according to a UNESCO statement.

Warnings

Activists and policymakers are increasingly speaking of an international food crisis, warning that unrest over soaring commodity prices could spread, and calling for an urgent increase in aid to developing nations.

The UNESCO report is expected to plumb the deeper and longer-term causes of the troubles in the food industry, and recommend "urgent change in the rules that govern modern agriculture," the statement said.

Wheat prices have risen 130 per cent since March 2007, Unesco says, while soy prices jumped 87 per cent. The World Bank said last week that world food prices have risen 83 per cent over the last three years.

Some critics are blaming in part the increasing use of biofuels.

With crude oil prices high, some farmers in the West have turned to growing wheat, sugar beets or other products to produce fuels for use in vehicles. Opponents allege that such a policy could push up food prices.

World Bank chief Robert Zoellick has called on donors to give US$500 million (€316 million) in emergency aid to the UN World Food Program by May 1.

The price hikes have hit people in developing countries hardest. The UN Food and Agricultural Organisation, which contributed to the UNESCO report, has said food represents 60-80 per cent of consumer spending in developing countries - compared with about 10-20 per cent in industrialised nations.

- AP