During yesterday’s annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank in Madrid, the decision reached was that the rising food and energy prices represent a problem that needs immediate attention.

“This price surge has a stark human dimension and has greatly affected over a billion people in Asia and the Pacific alone. Their purchasing power has been eroded, placing them at a greater risk of hunger and malnutrition," said ADB President Haruhiko Kuroda according to Agence France-Presse. He also stated that a few countries have already requested the financial assistance of the ADB.

The plan is to make huge loans, worth hundreds of millions of dollars in order to have a shot at tackling the food crisis.

His estimates present the stocks of food grains at one of the lowest levels in decades. The problem appeared with the reduced production and the highly increasing demand.

ADB's Chief Economist Ifzal Ali explained that the focus and efforts at this point must be guided toward a much higher agricultural productivity, as many of the poor people in Asia depend on it. The higher production will boost the incomes in the areas and will also lead to smaller prices.

Even the United States officials, who were less than enthusiastic about ADB's long-term strategic plan, announced their support for higher agricultural production.

Last month, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon made a global call for funds needed by UN’s World Food Program (WFP). He sadly expressed his belief that more than 100 million people are currently dealing with hunger, malnutrition and social unrest.