After shunning a regional agreement to deal with rising food prices, President Oscar Arias' administration pledged to spend $88.4 million to boost local grain production and help the poor afford groceries.

The money will fund credit, insurance and technical help for farmers, as well as cash transfers for students and poor people.

At a Wednesday food-summit in Nicaragua that turned into a bash session against the United States, Arias refused to join 12 other Latin American countries in signing a resolution that calls on Venezuela to donate $100 million in agricultural assistance.

Foreign Minister Bruno Stagno said Costa Rica did not sign onto the plan because it included vague phrases such as “solidarity sovereignty” and “fair marketing,” and because it blamed the crisis on developed nations.

“We definitely agree that industrialized countries share much of the blame,” Stagno said, alluding to those countries' agricultural subsidies. “But developing countries – some of which are closing their borders to exports – are also partly responsible.”

In Costa Rica alone, the price of the basic food basket – a measure of 10 items, such as rice, beans, eggs and vegetables – rose 13.3 percent in the first quarter of 2008.

The administration said it will spend $36 million to help poor people cover those costs. The money provides payments to as many as 42,300 families with children in rural elementary schools that have just one teacher.

Some 16,000 poor families with children under 12 will receive a monthly check of $100 on average. Poor elementary school students will now receive a month cash transfer that formerly went only to high-schoolers.

The state will also invest in development and nutrition centers throughout the country, which give food and provide day care services to malnourished children and pregnant mothers.

That's in addition to a litany of social service programs already in place to help low-income or vulnerable Costa Ricans.

The plan's remaining $52.4 million will help bean, rice and white corn farmers substantially increase production, said Agriculture Minister Javier Flores. He wants Costa Rica to produce 80 percent of the rice it consumes within two years, up from about 50 percent today. Within three years, he said, Tico farmers should be growing 70 percent of the beans and white corn eaten here, up from 25 percent today.

Finance Minister Guillermo Zúñiga said he would ask the Legislative Assembly to approve $35 million in new funds for the plan. State banks and institutions will put up the remaining $53.4 million from their own budgets.