Granted the UN is usually behind the 8 ball as they are a bunch of academic bureaucrats..
ftp://ftp.fao.org/agl/agll/docs/cwfto11.pdf
Those that are interested theres more in the site..
http://www.fao.org/
Personally I don't subscribe to the hype from the media of Food shortages and or riots.. sensationalism to the max..as per another threads news article of Philippines sending rice from Canada back home..
Jezz.. get real. isolated cases.. I have been on the ground floor there looking at rice production in some of the outer provenience's.. its a boom for those that invest and for the farmers but The rice problem is made worse by rice smuggling. Unscrupulous rice traders collude with politicians and agricultural officials in hoarding rice supplies. This creates an artificial crisis which jacks up the price of rice.
Corruption is to be blamed.
As an example. President Arroyo distributed millions in fertilizer funds to her loyal supporters. The money could have been used to improve rice productivity.
Conclusion.. Work on the corruption more so than on the production across Asia..
