In their annual report on global food insecurity, the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the World Food Programme and the International Fund for Agricultural Development say poor farmers and consumers, particularly in Africa, would be most affected.

Kostas Stamoulis, director of the FAO Agricultural and Development Economics Division, says prices are expected to remain higher and more volatile.

The report says investment in the agricultural sector is essential and that failure to increase productivity will result in continued price fluctuations, placing poor farmers and consumers in food-importing countries at greater risk for poverty.
UN agencies say efforts to reduce the number of hungry people by half by 2015 are greatly challenged by the food and economic crises of recent years. And even if the targets are achieved, some 600 million people in developing countries would continue to remain hungry on a daily basis.