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The money would go to feed about 4.5 million Afghans in the coming year, the United Nations said in a news release. The cost of food staples such as wheat have jumped 50 percent to 100 percent in some parts of Afghanistan.

U.N. aide officials in Afghanistan report its wheat harvest is expected to be 36 percent lower this year than 2007 when the country produced 90 percent of the food it needed to feed its population.

"There is an urgent need to provide life-saving assistance to Afghanistan's people, the needs are great and the time is limited", said Bo Asplund, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator and deputy special representative of the secretary-general.

The appeal also is aimed at providing about 300,000 farming families with livestock and agricultural assistance, help prevent malnutrition in 550,000 women and children, provide safe drinking water, promote good hygiene in drought-affected communities and improve disease control.

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