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Agriculture, recognised by experts as essential and powerful components of world development, but too often ignored. To help address the problem, the World Bank's flagship report "the 2008 World Development Report" has focussed on the role of agriculture for the first time in 25 years.

Presenter - Rob Sharp
Speaker - Dr Derek Byerlee, co-author "Agriculture for Development"

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Food prices have also seen a dramatic spike over the last year, and many countries are facing critical food shortages. The price of fertiliser continues to rise, with demand outstripping supply thanks to a growing population and limited land to grow food crops.

Presenter - Girish Sawlani
Speaker - Ingrid Richardson, senior analyst, Food and Agribusiness Research Division, Rabobank (Sydney); Anthony Banbury, director, World Food Programme Asia Bureau

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A top US central banker is warning that soaring food and energy prices may bring about global inflation. Richard Fisher heads the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, and he's also a member of the powerful Open Market Committee that sets interest rates for the world's biggest economy.

Many American analysts have been predicting a series of interest rate cuts, to offset the prospect of a US recession in the wake of rising oil prices and a slump in the housing market. But Richard Fisher suggests the Federal Reserve may put rates up, to combat rising inflation.

Presenter - Stephen Long
Speaker - President of the Dallas Federal Reserve Bank, Richard Fisher

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The use of food crops to make biofuels has helped drive food prices up to a point where the World Food Program said
it wouldn't be able to afford to feed the 90-million people who rely on its help this year. Now, fuel companies are looking for new ways to make biofuels which won't harm food stocks, or take up land needed for food production.