Good Friends, a Buddhist human-rights group in South Korea, says that in rural areas families are again adding tree-bark and grass to their diet, and foraging for food in the wild. It says that in South Pyongan province in west-central North Korea, people are already dying of starvation, while listless farmers ignore officials' calls to plant this year's rice. Last month the World Food Programme (WFP) called for urgent help to avert a “serious tragedy”.
http://www.economist.com/opinion/displayStory.cfm?source=hptextfeature&story_id=11332771
Zimbabwe's central bank has introduced 500 million Zimbabwe dollar notes [...] The new highest denomination note would buy about two loaves of bread. The central bank also introduced special agricultural cheques in five billion, 25 billion and 50 billion Zimbabwe dollar denominations to facilitate payments to farmers during the current selling season.
Farmers normally have to carry huge stacks of bank notes after selling their produce to state agencies, while consumers often carry large piles of cash with them for simple daily transactions.
The country is currently in the middle of the tobacco and maize marketing season.
"The Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe is pleased to announce the introduction of special instruments to cater for the marketing needs of our farmers in the form of 'special agro cheques' whose lifespan will run through December 31 2008," the central bank said in a statement.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/15/2246223.htm
