Urgent action to help the world's poorest farmers help themselves would make a significant contribution to tackling the global food crisis in a single growing season, according to Jeffrey Sachs, United Nations development adviser. "In much of the poorest parts of the world, the potential for significant increases in food production is very real," said Mr Sachs, director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and adviser to Ban Ki-moon, the UN secretary-general. Citing the example of Malawi, a country that moved from a disastrous harvest in 2005 to a maize surplus the following year, he said supplying farmers with cheap seed and fertilisers along with low-technology items, such as treadle pumps, could have a bigger impact than traditional food aid. At a cost of $60m (