POPULATION AND FOOD

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27914, 10 March 1956, Page 7

POPULATION AND FOOD

OUTLOOK DISCUSSED According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (F.A.0.) at the end of the first post-war decade, both world agricultural production and world food production (including estimates for the U.S.S.R., Eastern Europe and China) were 20 per cent, above the 1934-38 level. World population (excluding China), however, had risen by nearly 25 per cent. For the world as a whole, per capita food production had risen by only 1 per cent, since pre-war. Moreover, while production has expanded, the total of world trade in agricultural commodities has shown little change in recent years from its 1934-38 level. Looking ahead, F.A.0.. in its 1955 "State of Food and Agriculture," focuses attention on some of the main weaknesses in the present agricultural situation. These are: (a) the failure of consumption to increase with production, leading to the emergence of burdensome surpluses in some areas, (b) Rigidity in production patterns by comparison with shifts in demand, intensified by systems of price support, (c) The stagnation of world trade in agricultural products. <d) The low levels of farm incomes in relation to incomes in other occupations. This is more so in the lesser developed counties. Further economic and industrial development is a prerequisite for improvements in farm productivity and income.