THE Asian Development Bank has rushed to offer cheap loans to poor countries in the region to help them cope with the world food crisis. Warning of a backwards slide in economic development that could potentially plunge millions of people back into poverty, bank president Haruhiko Kuroda told a meeting in Madrid: "The cheap food era may be over." Rising fuel prices, economic subsidies, poor farming methods and climate change have contributed to a sharp increase in the cost of staple crops. The price of rice in Thailand has tripled over the past year to almost $US1000 ($A1068) a tonne. Australia pledged $30 million in emergency aid last week in response to an appeal by the World Food Program to help make up a funding shortfall. US President George Bush has asked Congress to approve an extra $US770 million for food aid and development. Paul Ronalds, director of policy and programs with World Vision Australia, welcomed the extra spending, but warned that food is likely to remain expensive. "In the longer term we need to, as a global community, place much greater investment into increasing yields, particularly in developing countries and for small-plot farmers," he said. "The yields that many farmers in developing countries are achieving from their land are still way below the sorts of yields that we get, for example, in places like Australia." Mr Ronalds said Australia should use its expertise in dry-land agriculture to help increase production across the region and also encourage further reform of the global trade in food. He said economic subsidies to US and European farmers made it more difficult for developing countries to compete. "It's having a significant distorting impact on world trade and we need to address it," he said. Asia is home to two-thirds of the world's poor, and nearly 1.7 billion people in the region live on $US2 a day or less. Global food prices have nearly doubled in three years. Many Asian countries have responded by imposing price controls or bans on food exports, but the bank warns this could discourage farmers from planting, thereby reducing supplies and raising prices further. With AGENCIES