The Asian Development Bank will lend Bangladesh $170 million to help cope with a rapid rise in food prices. The loan, part of a package with other multilateral aid donors, "will ensure access to food supply for those hardest hit by recent natural disasters in Bangladesh and the rapid increase in food prices," the ADB said in a statement yesterday. ADB funding will provide support to Bangladeshi government "safety net programmes" intended to ensure that some five million poor people get access to food. This will include providing food supplies for sale in the open market, assistance programmes such as "food-for-work" schemes and the feeding of vulnerable groups, the ADB statement said. Bangladesh, a net importer of food grains, was severely affected by two floods and a devastating cyclone in the second half of 2007. They caused a sharp shortfall in rice production that adversely affected "the food security of an estimated 25 million people," the ADB said. This was worsened by the rapid rise in food prices that mainly affected the poor and fixed income earners. Along with the loan, the ADB is also issuing a 600,000-dollar grant to help the government improve its ability to plan and undertake medium- and long-term programmes to improve food security.