A 25-nation Asia-Pacific ministerial conference on agriculture is taking place in Kathmandu next week in the run-up to the World Food Summit in Rome in June. High on the agenda of both meetings will be the crisis of food security in the world's mountain regions. Chronically food-deficit hilly regions of the world, including Nepal, are now also being wracked by conflict. This is worsening an already bad food situation, says Jacques Diouf, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). "Mountain areas are home to most of the armed conflicts in the world as well as many of the poorest and least food-secure populations," says Diouf. Without peace, we cannot reduce poverty. Without peace, we cannot ensure secure food supply."