UNITED Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon yesterday called for a 50-percent increase in food production by 2030, saying failure to feed the world's growing population will spark civil unrest and starvation.

"The world needs to produce more food," he said in the opening speech at the World Food Security conference in Rome. "While we must respond immediately to high food prices, it is important that our longer-term focus is on improving world security ?? and remains so for some years."

Government leaders at the three-day summit are trying to cobble together solutions to ensure that the highest commodity prices in three decades don't further swell the ranks of the world's 860 million hungry people, Bloomberg News reported.

Shortages of staples such as rice threaten to fuel civil unrest, said Ban, who also wants an end to farm subsidies, agricultural taxes and export bans.

A 60-percent increase in food prices since the beginning of 2007 has sparked riots in more than 30 countries - including Cameroon and Egypt - that depend on imported food.

The wealthiest nations pledged US$6.3 billion in emergency aid last year, yet critics say that will do little unless accompanied by policies that promote greater output. "The threats are obvious to us all," Ban said.

The head of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, Jacques Diouf, called for US$30 billion of investment a year to boost farm production and fight hunger worldwide.

"How can we explain to people of good sense and good faith that it was not possible to find US$30 billion a year to enable 862 million hungry people to enjoy the most fundamental of human rights: the right to food, and thus the right to life," he said.

Wealthy countries are being pressed to reverse two decades of declining farm aid to poor nations at the biggest meeting of world leaders to address surging food costs.

Last year development aid from donors such as the United States, the European Union, Japan, Switzerland and Canada dropped 8.4 percent in real terms to US$103.7 billion.