The food crisis hitting the world's poor has forced its way onto the agenda at this week's meeting of G8 leaders in Japan because of the twin impact from drought and spiralling world food prices in countries such as Ethiopia.
Crop failures in Ethiopia, with poor rainfall on arid land, for instance, have taken their toll on their most common source of nutrition, teff, a cereal that is ground down to make a sour pancake-like dish called injera.
World Vision aid worker Joseph Kamara said that was "a big, big blow to them".
Last week, World Bank President Robert Zoellick urged G8 leaders to commit more aid to prevent starvation in developing countries affected by the rising costs of food and oil.
The head of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation, Jacques Diouf, has warned that climate change is also affecting global food supply, potentially reducing crop yields in parts of Africa, Asia and Latin America by as much as 40pc if global temperatures rise more than three degrees.
The UN wants more agricultural aid to assist farmers in poorer nations where land is severely degraded, the result of "the international community's neglect of agriculture in developing countries for a long time," Mr Diouf told a European Parliament conference last week.
Mr Kamara, a recently returned program manager for World Vision in Ethiopia, said land in some parts of the country was so dry that locals were eating cactus, one of the few plants that will grow under such conditions.
The impact of the crop failure in Ethiopia has been compounded by the increased word food prices, so even the little food that is available is not easily affordable.
The UN says that the production of cereal crops in developing countries excluding China and India dropped by 2.2pc in 2007 and stocks are at their lowest levels in 30 years.