It's getting harder and harder for the world's poor to feed their families as global food prices shoot up, sparking riots from Egypt to Haiti.

There's enough food to go round, the experts say. So what's the problem and what do we do about it?

"Over the last 50 years, food production has gone up faster than the population, and the price of food measured in real terms has actually gone down," Robert Watson, director of the International Assessment of Agricultural Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD), said as he launched a major report this week. "But we still have more than 800 million people going to bed hungry every night."

Watson said food price increases in recent months have been driven by rising demand, unfavourable weather, export restrictions, commodity market speculators, increased land use for biofuels and higher energy costs.

But these factors are tied to longer-term problems caused by the world's unfair agricultural system. Many of the people who can't afford food today have barely felt any benefits from the boost to production in recent decades.

Higher yields and lower costs for large-scale farmers have failed to solve the social and economic problems of the poor in developing countries, says the IAASTD report, which is backed by the United Nations, the World Bank and 60 governments.

It warns that opening national agricultural markets to international competition can hurt food security and the environment, and put obstacles in the way of efforts to cut poverty.

Some countries have responded to rising prices - which have shot up almost 40 percent in the last year - by stopping exports to keep stocks for their own people. But this is only a short-term fix.

WOMEN FARMERS STRUGGLE

The IAASTD says we need something radically different to feed the world's growing population and cope with climate change if we're going to avoid social breakdown and environmental collapse.

It says women farmers - who make up more and more of the food-growing workforce as men migrate to cities to work - will play a crucial role. And researchers admit they should do better at asking farmers and consumers around the world what they really need.

According to the report, the proportion of women involved in agricultural activities in each country varies from 20 percent to 70 percent, and the figure is rising in developing countries.

If you include gardening, animal care and collecting firewood in the definition of women who are "economically active", the statistics jump dramatically - in the case of Dominican Republic from 21 percent to 84 percent, for example. But women in poor countries need better access to credit and farming knowledge, Watson said.

This is an issue that's expected to grow along with climate change, especially in Asia. Agricultural labour is becoming feminised as men are forced to seek work elsewhere, according to Rajeswari Raina of the New Delhi-based Centre for Policy Research. But rural women often don't have the knowledge to make a decent living from farming.

"If we don't act now, how will we preserve production increases?" Raina asked. "It looks like we will lose all the gains we've made over the past 50 years if we don't address these integrated issues."

The IAASTD report warns against rushing into biofuels in Africa, and recommends treating genetically modified crops with caution.

It says farmers need safety nets and other kinds of employment in rural areas, and more research that's relevant to small-scale agriculture.

And it argues that researchers and policy makers should talk more to poorer farmers - to value their knowledge and listen to what they need.

WHAT DO FARMERS WANT?

Some critics say the voices of poor, marginalised farmers and food workers in developing countries are absent in the report that took IAASTD three years to research.

"Technological fixes and policies decided from above are not enough. Science and knowledge should be part of a bottom-up, participatory process in which citizens themselves take centre stage," said Michel Pimbert of the Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

Over the next three years, the London-based think tank is planning a project to give farmers, workers and consumers a chance to have their say about the kind of food and agricultural research they want.

"Officials and scientists will have to put their case to farmers in village squares and under tamarind trees," Pimbert said.

IIED says it will push local media to cover the rural citizens' panels it's setting up in Bolivia, India, Iran, Mali and Peru, to make sure their messages are heard close to home too.

IIED already has experience of a "citizens jury" in Mali it helped organise in 2006, which resulted in ordinary cotton-growers and other farmers voting against the introduction of genetically modified crops in the world's fourth poorest country.

Watson of the IAASTD said: "Agriculture can no longer be thought of simply as production. We need to include social, economic and environmental issues, and think about the gender and cultural impacts."

Farming, it seems, is back in fashion.

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