UN: Poverty eradication slows in Asia-Pacific

The rate at which poverty is falling across the Asia-Pacific region is slowing despite a burst of largely urban wealth creation, a United Nations report said yesterday, blaming the setback on a neglect of agriculture.

It argued that raising farm labor productivity and liberalizing global trade in agricultural products could lift more than 250 million Asians out of poverty.

Farming still supports almost 60 percent of population in the Asia-Pacific region, the report said, and generates a quarter of its gross domestic product.