The 2008 food riots in countries like Haiti have been described as a "wake up" call on the dangers of neglecting agriculture as a key policy issue.
That was the keynote message from senior commission official Catherine Combette to an international summit on hunger and malnutrition.
The riots came after the price of major foodstuffs consumed by the vast majority of the world, wheat, rice and maize, hit historically high levels on international markets.
Addressing the summit in Senegal, Combette said other factors, such as climate change, had also contributed to higher prices.
The main losers were poor people who live in cities in developing countries, who faced higher prices for imported food and who have low incomes.
Combette, who is based in the commission's development directorate, said the failure of poor countries, especially in Africa, to devote sufficient resources to agriculture was another key factor in the riots.
The French-born official said developing nations are supposed to devote at least 10 per cent of their public budget on agriculture but that many had failed to do so.
"The food riots showed what can happen if, as has happened, agriculture is neglected. They were, if you like, a wake up call," she said.
"However, the fact is that this 10 per cent target is still not being met by many developing countries."
Combette, deputy head of unit dealing with ACP countries, was addressing a session on the role regions can play in tackling world hunger.
Following the food riots the EU set up a €1bn 'food facility' fund for 50 of the poorest developing countries.
She said the aim of the three-year project, launched in 2008, is to provide essentials such as seeds and fertilisers to help farmers in such nations be more productive.
She also pointed out that the commission has just completed a consultation exercise on a paper entitled 'Towards an EU policy framework to assist developing countries addressing agriculture and food security challenges'.
Combette said that while they did not face the same challenges as their counterparts in places like Africa, European farmers themselves were suffering from, for instance, the impact of climate change.
The Dakar summit was organised by the Conference of Peripheral and Maritime Regions and the Forum of Global Associations of Regions, attracting 700 participants from 34 countries across five continents.
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