Central American countries will put more than $500 million toward an emergency plan to stave off an impending food crisis the United Nations is calling a “silent tsunami,” a regional agricultural body announced yesterday.

The funds will help farmers grow more of the region's staple crops such as rice, corn and beans, said Mario Salaverría, the Salvadoran agriculture minister who is serving as president of the Council on Agriculture and Livestock of Central America (CAC), according to Agence France-Presse.

The announcement came as poor nations brace themselves for ever rising prices of basic foodstuffs, which analysts pin on a variety of factors, including weather-damaged harvests, soaring fuel costs and. The World Food Program, a U.N. agency, says the crisis could leave one hundred million people hungry worldwide.

Costa Rica's National Rice Commission (Conarroz) yesterday urged the government to declare an “emergency,” reported German newswire DPA.

Several agriculture programs and aid plans were launched this week amid calls for action, including the U.S. government's release of $200 million for emergency food aid worldwide.

The presidents of Bolivia, Nicaragua and Venezuela, and Cuba's vice president also created a $100 million fund for basic foods to mitigate the sharp rises in world food prices, Reuters reported.

The accord came Wednesday during a meeting between the leaders, whose countries together form the Latin American leftist trading bloc ALBA, as their answer to the crisis that recently sparked riots in Egypt and Haiti.

Yesterday leaders of eight West African nations followed suit, announcing a $500 million food program, according to Spanish language news Web site BBCMundo.com.

Read next week's Tico Times and Nica Times for more on this story.