Asian's food crisis getting worse

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33665, 15 October 1974, Page 10

Asian's food crisis getting worse

(By

IBRAHIM NOORI,

I. N.Z.P.A.-Reuter correspondent)

SINGAPORE. A food crisis of varying magnitude is unfolding in Asia a recurrent problem now compounded by inflation, higho oil prices and lower harvests almost exerywhere.

But only in India and Bangladesh, victims of severe droughts and flooding recently, are food shortages said to be threatening millions of people with starvation.

The Bangladesh Prime Minister (Mr Mujibur Rahman) has warned the United Nations that failing international action to help his country, “human misery will be aggravated on a scale uniknown in history'.” i About 700,000 tons of foodI grains were lost in floods this ! year in Bangladesh, where leach year between six to 10 million acres of farmland are inundated by flooding. India, it is estimated, needs at least 15m tons of imported foodgrain this year to feed millions living below subsistence level. Elsewhere, however, the picture is less bleak, the main problem being soaring costs of commodities, including fertilisers, and balance of payments deficits. EXPORTING RICE

China, the world’s most populous country, has enough food for its population of j nearly 800 m. It is also exporting rice to Singapore, Hong King, and Indonesia. According to the New China News Agency, China’s grain output last year exceeded 250 m tons, more than i double that of 1949. “Whether in the city or in the countryside, in remote mountain villages or in disaster-stricken areas, all are assured of their daily meal,” the agency said. Taiwan, officials there say, will have no problem feeding its population of 16m over the next decade.

In the tiny island republic of Singapore, the food problem is barely noticeable. Singapore grows no foodgrains, but plentiful supplies are imported to meet the needs of the two million inhabitants. A number of other countries in the region aim at self-sufficiency in food within the next five years. STAPLE FOOD

The basic item in short supply is rice, the staple food for millions of people in Asia. A plateful of rice is more satisfying to the Asian palate than any other food item including fish, meat, poultry, or vegetables.

The United States Department of Agriculture has predicted a 1 per cent drop in the world rice yield because of reduced crops in Asia. The region produced 90 per cent of the world’s rice. Thailand’s northern provinces, which contribute between 35 to 40 per cent of the country’s rice crop, w'ere hit by droughts last year and floods this year, but officials said about I.Bm tons would still be availrole for exports next year. Before World War II Burma was the largest rice exporter. But last year it was unable to sell any rice because of internal problems. FLOODING The country last month suffered its worst flooding in 60 years, dimming rice export prospects. Japan is self-sufficient in rice, producing 12m tonnes annually. But it has to import more than 5m tonnes of wheat and more than 10m tonnes of foodgrains, including com, soya bean and sorghum. Taiwan also appears to be comfortably off as far as rice is concerned. The target

rice production this year is set at 2.5 m tonnes. The rice planting acreage is being maintained at the level of 1.7 m acres a year with per-acre yield rising at the rate of 0.5 per cent per year. The country still relies heavily on imports of soya bean and maize. More land is being brought under rice cultivation in Malaysia, which aims to become independent of foreign supplies by the end of next year. It now produces 1.2 m tonnes and consumption is estimated at 1.3 m tonnes. The shortfall ii being met by imports. I South Korea annually i spends SNZ3O4m on food i imports. To feed its 32m ; people it is estimated that until at least the 1980 s the country will need about 3m tons of imported grains, mainly wheat and maize, because of increased consumption.

But the Government plans not only to achieve selfsufficiency in rice and barley —which is also the staple food—by 1976, but also to have a stockpile of 270.000 tons of rice and 416,000 tons [of barley by 1981. FIVE-YEAR PLAN Indonesia’s current fiveyear plan, ending in 1979, is geared to turn the country from rice consumer into producer. The Minister of Agriculture (Thoyib Hadiwidjaja) has said that the country, with a population of 120 million, hopes to be self-sufficient in 1976 when production is expected to reach 16.3 m tons. South Vietnam is also approaching self-sufficiency in food production again after over a decade of costly im-porting—-but inflation currently running at about 60

per cent a year means people ■ still go hungry, according to officials in Saigoin Government officials and American experts working in Saigon agree that the war was mainly responsible for turning South Vietnam with its “rice bowl” of the Mekong Delta into a country reliant on food imports, particularly American rice. Thev estimate that 285.000 I tons of American rice, worth ■ SNZI2Sm will be imported I this year. ■ The war in Cambodia has also turned that country ■ from an exporter into an importer of rice. Output has dropped from 3.8 m tons in 1970 to 955,000 tons last (year. The deficit is now made lup bv imports. ■ The Philippines, where floods occurred recently, is expected to import about ,200,000 tonnes. FOOD CONFERENCE I Asian delegates to the ■ United Nations Food Conference in Rome on November 5 ■ would no doubt expect the developed countries’ help to ■ solve their food problems. One major demand would be for reasonably priced fertilisers and other agricultural chemicals to enable Asian ■countries to push ahead with ambitious agricultural development projects. Officials in Tokyo say Japan would be prepared to provide money and materials to the developing countries provided they redoubled efforts to raise food production in their own countries but Japan would be unable to supply foodgrain because she herself is a major importer of the commodity. The Asian countries would also be reminded by the conference of the urgency of population control to bridge the gap between food supply and demand.