Kampala — COMMONWEALTH finance ministers should adopt extension services and create strategic food reserves to minimise the consequences of high food prices, the Commonwealth Secretary General, Kamalesh Sharma, has said.

"Finance ministers have to urgently ensure increased food production. "No matter what value you add, if you do not make more food available, you won't have an impact," he said.

Sharma was speaking to journalists on the sidelines of the Commonwealth finance ministers' meeting in Castries, the capital of the Caribbean island state of St Lucia.

He urged the Commonwealth members countries to follow India's example where assistance to farmers has improved agriculture production.

"There is vast experience where food production has been boosted through extension services. Giving farmers assistance to improve the soil condition, water management, seed technology, rodent control, avoidance of wastage, packaging and marketing," he said.

Sharma appealed to development partners funding farming programmes that would affect the implementation of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), to make good of their commitments.