Representatives of central and eastern European countries were to meet UN officials yesterday to discuss how much redundant agricultural land could be brought back into use to alleviate the worldwide food shortage.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) is holding a conference in London with the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) as countries such as Russia and Ukraine are seen as having spare agricultural land.
40 percent spike
The UN's World Food Program raised the alarm last month when it warned that it would soon not be able to afford to feed millions of people in poor countries because of a 40 percent increase in food prices.
That, along with rising energy prices, has sparked panic around the world that global inflation may be set to rise. The surge in food prices is being put down to increases in demand for foodstuffs for cattle in the face of surging meat demand in China and India, the increasing use of biofuels and climate change.
EBRD and the FAO believe there is significant untapped agricultural production potential in eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) region, especially in Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine, which used to be known as the breadbasket of the Soviet Union.
arable land
It is estimated that in recent years 23 million hectares of arable land were taken out of use in the region, of which 13 million could be returned to use without any significant environmental impact.
FAO Director-General Jacques Diouf will call for "courageous steps" to help unlock the untapped potential. Current forecasts are for a rise of 7 percent in CIS grain production to 159 million tonnes between now and 2016.
"But let us be bolder and imagine the removal of the institutional and financial constraints that limit production in the region," Diouf said. "The region's cereal output and its contribution to world exports would then be well above those projections."
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