MANILA, June 8 (Xinhua) -- The Philippines has called on the international donors and financial institutions to increase funding support for agricultural productivity research to addressing the global food crisis, reported the official Philippines News Agency on Sunday.

    The news agency quoted Philippine Ambassador to the UN Hilario G. Davide Jr. as saying at a UN special meeting on food crisis in New York last week that more money should be donated to food research institutions like the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) near Manila.

    The Filipino official told the Special Meeting on the Food Crisis convened by the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank, the Internal Fund for Agricultural Development and development partners should help raise the funds for research of IRRI.

    The Philippines has been severely hit by the soaring food price which has forced the government to spend millions of U.S. dollars to buy food abroad and secure food supply at home.

    "The research of the IRRI, the world's main repository of rice seeds as well as genetic and other information about rice -- the crop that feeds nearly half of the peoples of the world -- has been, unfortunately, tremendously slowed down because of cuts in funds for agricultural research," he said.

    He also said damage to rice crops caused by such insects as brown plant hopper, a tiny biting fly that has caused havoc across East Asia, would have been prevented if only IRRI's budget for research has not been cut or reduced, according to the report.

    The IRRI has pointed out that brown plant hopper is multiplying by the billions and chewing through rice paddies in East Asia, threatening the diets of many poor people, he said.

    Ambassador Davide also said that although no fewer than 14 new types of genetic resistance varieties of rice have been discovered, the budget cuts prevent the IRRI from moving any further to breed these traits into widely used rice varieties.

    "If money is available for research, IRRI can accomplish the task in four to seven years and save millions of people from hunger, from deaths," he was quoted as saying.