Rene Frechet

Rene Frechet, technical advisor at the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), said: "This is the worst ever period we have seen in history in terms of rising food prices.

Grain prices have doubled in the past one year and will continue to go up."Frechet added that with the demand for grains growing globally, both for food and as a source of biofuels, the upward trend is not likely to change in the short-term (one to two years).

The IFAD official said diverting foodgrains like corn has emerged as a major challenge for international bodies."IFAD is evolving a policy on the use of biofuels, but broadly we are against using foodgrains for fuel or using up land to grow other plants producing biofuels which can be used to grow food," he said.

Rene Frechet of IFAD said that his organization was helping seven projects across the world.