Tuesday, 26 February 2008

Food Inflation Worries Hit Cambodia's Poor - Report

rttnews.com
02/26/2008

The persistent increase in food costs is causing more misery to Cambodia's poor, the AFP reported said Tuesday.

The cost of food is rising across Asia, driven by reasons ranging from higher demand and surging global oil prices to environmental factors such as global warming, hurting the normal agricultural cycles, the report said.

The picture has been turning bleaker for nearly 2.6 million people living in extreme poverty, over the last several years, which witnessed poor harvests due to natural disasters such as flood and drought.

The AFP quoted the World Food Program as saying that too many Cambodians still suffer from hunger and malnutrition for some or most of the time. The WFP is very concerned about the general increase of the cost of the staples, in Cambodia as well as in other regions, an official reportedly said.

According to the AFP report, the Cambodian government seems reluctant to intervene and check the relentless rise in food costs. Meanwhile, other governments in the region responded by lowering import tariffs or establishing national food stockpiles.

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