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| Half of Pakistan’s population is ‘food insecure’: WFP |
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Wednesday, April 23, 2008
ISLAMABAD: Because of the rising food prices, 77 million people in Pakistan, nearly half of the country's population, can now be considered food insecure, Anthony Banbury, Regional Director for Asia, UNWFP said here on Tuesday.
He said that the rising food prices had been badly affecting the efforts of the World Food Programme (WFP) to combat the poverty. "I have come to Pakistan to see the effects of this crisis in the country that is critical to our global efforts to meet this challenge," he added. In addition to increased needs in Pakistan, the WFP is especially concerned for more than 100 million people, living on all continents, who are at risk of not being able to purchase enough food for themselves and their families, he said. He said that the agency fed 28 million of the poorest people in 14 Asian countries.
He said rising food prices have the potential to pull more people into poverty, and deepen food insecurity among the already vulnerable groups. Globally, the WFP has appealed to donors for $755 million to address increased costs among already approved projects for 2008, he added.
Banbury said that in the past year, WFP estimated that there were approximately 60 million food insecure people in Pakistan. Because of rising food prices, an additional 17 million people can now be considered food insecure, which will raise the number to 77 million, nearly half of the country's population. "We will need more than 23.3 million additional dollars in funding to take on the increased needs of the poorest Pakistanis because of the rising food price crisis," WFP Regional Director said. In Pakistan, WFP assists approximately four million food insecure people annually.
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ISSN 1563-9479 
