With a serious food crisis facing the world's poorest people, a U.N. food summit in Rome has ended with a promise to relieve hunger threatening one billion people. The final agreement calls for more food for the world's poor and an increase in agriculture production. But it has left many commentators frustrated at a lack of action on the most contentious and pressing issues.
Kenya's Daily Nation newspaper says that, although there has been much finger pointing and talk about the problems, practical short-term answers to the global crisis have been seriously lacking.
"It is not enough to blame the U.S. and Brazil for using food crops and sugar-cane to produce biofuels. It is not enough to make lofty declarations about intentions to raise food production in poor agrarian economies," the paper writes. More must be done to address the concerns of the poor Kenyan who is now unable to afford three square meals a day.
"What is most urgent now is the answer to the question: What will the world do to ensure that close to a billion most vulnerable people are helped to stay alive?" the newspaper concludes.
Radio Netherlands meanwhile writes of different concerns from Latin America.
"A number of Latin American countries have accused the U.N. food summit in Rome of incorrectly diagnosing the root causes of a crisis threatening millions with starvation," the radio station says.
Cuba, Argentina and Venezuela were among the strongest critics of the final declaration, the broadcaster says, all of them calling for changes in the way global trade rules operate. Venezuela, for example, insists that developing countries must be able to shield their markets from free trade when necessary, particularly when an influx of foreign imports could devastate local industry.
Elsewhere in Africa concerns about rising food prices aren't focused on the outcome of the summit.
Uganda's Daily Monitor calls on the Ugandan government to act to combat the effects of rising food prices in the country.
The paper says the government should follow in the footsteps of Ghana's President John Kufur who recently announced a $1bn package of interventions to mitigate the impact of food scarcity in Ghana.
"In some other African countries, the governments have been forced to act because of demonstrations and riots over the escalating food prices," the Monitor says. "The government of Uganda should not wait for that to happen here. The time to act is now."
The Jerusalem Post says there are wider concerns about the role of developing country governments in perpetuating a food crisis.
"The FAO (U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation), instead of linking the dire situations in the developing world to political abuse, chose to focus on blaming the West," Dr Isaac Kfir writes for the Israeli newspaper.
"The reality, however, is that by demanding the removal of several corrupt and power-hungry leaders, as well as enforcing the peace in several other countries, one would save hundreds of millions of people," he says, pointing to North Korea and Zimbabwe as examples of countries in which political change would bring about a reduction in the numbers of hungry and starving.
Meanwhile, for Britain's Independent newspaper the summit has failed to address much more fundamental causes of rising global food prices.
The amounts pledged at the summit are too small to stimulate a "green revolution" in agriculture according to the paper, and delegates failed to tackle Western agricultural subsidies and import tariffs that penalise poor farmers. Furthermore, no progress has been made on biofuels which are responsible for driving up prices as productive land is given over to growing food rather than fuel.
The measures needed aren't rocket science according to the paper, but "scandalously, this summit has broken up with its participants only apparently resolved for inaction".
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