A UN summit on food security opens today in Rome, Italy, where world leaders are gathering to discuss how to feed the world’s billion hungry people.

Ban Ki-moon, UN secretary general, called for nations to agree a single global vision to address the problem, which he said must recognise the links between food and climate security.

“There can be no food security without climate security,” he said.

“By 2050 our planet may be the home of 9.1 billion people… by 2050 we know we will need to grow 70 percent more food, yet weather is becoming more extreme and more unpredictable," he added.

Anti-poverty campaigners lamented the absence of leaders from the world’s riches countries at the summit.

“Sixty leaders are coming from around the world to this important UN summit, but where are the leaders from all the G8 countries?" asked ActionAid. “This doesn’t signal they are serious about finding global solutions to hunger,” said Francisco Sarmento, ActionAid’s food rights coordinator.

At a pre-summit meeting yesterday, scientists from a leading Brazilian university agreed to work with the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organisation to help build agricultural development programmes in Latin American and African countries. Under a Memorandum of Understanding, Brazil’s Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV), which specialises in food and agricultural studies and research, will also open its doors to students from developing countries.