One million gamers to help feed world's poorest

An online game where rice is donated to hungry and poor people around the world for each correct answer, has crossed a milestone by reaching one million registered players.

The game called Freerice, which is run by the United Nations World Food Program, gives players chance to test their knowledge of geography, art, mathematics, chemistry and increase their German, Spanish, Italian, French and English vocabulary.

When one of the multiple choice questions is answered correctly an advertising banner appears on the page.

The WFP uses the money generated by the ads to buy corresponding quantities of rice. Grains of rice are shown building up in a bowl on the side of the screen.

Till now ninety-four billion grains, enough to feed five million people for a day, have been donated as a result of people playing the game, The Sydney Morning Herald reports.

According to the 2011 Asia Pacific Digital Marketing Yearbook, Australians spend an average of 6.4 hours a week playing games and 15.9 per cent of users list gaming as an important reason for logging on.