In Brief: Policy guide to beat high food prices

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JOHANNESBURG, 28 January 2011 (IRIN) - Don't impose export restrictions, check up on food inventories, draw up a poverty map - these are some of the handy policy tips offered by the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) in its new guide on how to deal with high food prices. 2010 ended with food prices at their highest since 2008, when the world was in the grip of a crisis sparked by very expensive staple grains. These prices are still high. The FAO guide said there was no "one size fits all" solution. Every country has the same chance of success if the mix of policy and programmatic actions is specifically adapted to local conditions and agreed upon by the key stakeholders. Read more: Guide for Policy and Programmatic Actions at Country Level to Address High Food Prices [ http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/user_upload/ISFP/revisedISFP_guide_web.pdf ] jk/he © IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org