"This covers Thanksgiving week, so it has to be taken with a large grain of salt, " Wyss said.

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More to the point, given that the 10-year compounded growth rate in government outlays ending fiscal year 2010 was 6.8%, and that over the last 5 year, 10 year and 25 year periods that 10 year growth rate averaged 6.3%, 5.3% and 5.9% respectively, we cannot help but take these spending projections with a rather large grain of salt.

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Greater meat consumption by the newly rich in China and other developing countries is also fuelling demand for grain, because livestock consume large quantities of feed.

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But in the great grain growing areas, by and large, it's just left to rot, or sometimes even burned in the fields.

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Compounding this imbalance is the fact that continuing urbanization and property development have taken large amounts of farmland out of production, threatening grain supply and agricultural development.

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Without salaries, they refused to start cleaning the 12-story-high grain silos--a crucial step to receive large amounts of humanitarian aid.

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Zambia's problems have been compounded by floods which have wiped out a large proportion of this year's crop, coinciding with a shortfall of grain - particularly the country's main staple, maize - across Southern Africa.

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Grain supplies for the program in the first year would not be a problem because the government has large stocks, but implementation of the program may become increasingly difficult in subsequent years, said Madan Sabnavis, chief economist at CARE Ratings.

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