The Asian Development Bank has warned that the crisis of rising food prices could reverse gains made in reducing poverty across the continent.
Bank president Haruhiko Kuroda warned at its annual meeting in Madrid that "the cheap food era may be over".
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Rice problems
The BBC's Alan Johnston says that food prices are the key issue on the minds of the thousands of government officials and business figures who have gathered in Madrid.
Mr Kuroda said it was critically important to provide financing for development projects in rural Asian areas.
He said that progress made in the great effort to lift millions out of poverty could be reversed.
The rising cost of food is helping to fuel inflation, which the bank predicts will rise to more than 5% across Asia this year - the highest level since the Asian financial crisis a decade ago.
The cost of the benchmark Thai variety of rice is about $1,000 a tonne, three times the cost at the time of the bank's last meeting a year ago.
Poor harvests, global warming, increasing demand and the transfer of food land to biofuel production have all been blamed as factors in the crisis.
Major rice producers like Vietnam and India are limiting exports to secure domestic supply.
Asia has two-thirds of the world's poor, with about 1.7 billion people earning $2 a day or lower.
Meanwhile, the African Development Bank said it would increase its $3.8bn agricultural loan portfolio by $1bn to tackle the crisis.
Bank president Donald Kaberuka said it would also restructure its lending to allow rapid disbursement of $250m.
(BBC)
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