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Food production in Third World heading for a crisis
WASHINGTON, Feb 2: Food production in the Third World Is heading for a crisis in the next two decades unless population growth is curbed and agricultural productivity increases with new research, according to experts who spoke at a food policy seminar, reports US1S.
Per Plnstrup-Andersen, Director-General of ‘ the International Food Policy Research Institute ( FPRI), in Washington, said Ja uary 29 that the availability o" food to more than 500 million hungry people in the Third World will soon become a problem of production and not distribution a* it has been in the past.
He said two-third* of 116 countrie* studied in a survey produced less food per capita in 1990 than they did in 1980 and that the food shortfall In the worst-hit region of sub-
Saharan Africa is expected to rise from today's 12 million metric tons to 50 million • by the end of the decade.
He said I FPRI calculates that food-crop yields per hectare must be increased by another 40 per cent and popu latlon growth rates halved in the next 20 years if the current level of food availability is to be maintained in the Third World.
Pinstrup-Andersen urged that a major new investment be made In agricultural development and tn agricultural research and technology by external aid agencies and developing countrie* to meet the coming crlais.
"Current food supplies arc the result of past investments that enabled the development of new technologies. But these investments declined during the 1980s and, unless the trend is reversed, the global food situation and access by poor people to food will deteriorate significantly during the next 20 to 30 years," he said.
IFPRl's Joachim von Braun estimated that official development assistance for agricultural development has dropped from a 22-per cent share of total official assistance in 1980 to 14 percent In 1990 or down from about 12,000 million dollar to 10,000 million dollar in constant 1985 dollar. The US share of support over the decade declined by almost 1,000 million dollar, he said.
Von Braun expects overall official support for agricultural development to decline even further In 1993 to a level between 8,0000 dollar and 9,000 million dollar.
Other officials reported that scientists at two agricultural research stations have made breakthroughs in growing maize in arid areas and rice in the poor soil of savanna grasslands bordering the Amazon rain forest in South America.
Donald Winkelmann, Director General of the Mexicobased International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMVT), said scientists at the center have developed a new hybrid of maize that can withstand drought better and yet produce 30 per cent more
He said during the 1991-1992 season CIMMVT sent more than 120 samples of drought-tolerant maize seed to researchers in more than 20 developing countries. Scientists are now working at the center to endow the drought-resistant maize with new disease-resistant traits. Gustavo Nores, director general of the Colombia-based International Center for Tropical Agriculture ( CIAT), said scientists at the center have developed the first variety of rice that will grow In the acidic soils of the grassy savannas bordering the Amazon rain forest.
This new rice can be used in a revolutionary farming system in which farmers plant the rice along with grasses and legumes that are used for cattle grazing. Farmers harvest the rice four months later and graze cattle on the pasture.
Nores said 10 years of research have produced a rice hybrid that could be used in over 200 million hectares of idle savannas in the Amazon basin. Use has already begun in Colombia, he said
Geoffrey 11.1» tin. director general of uic Haly-based International Board for Plant Genetic Resources (IBPGR), said protection of agricultural plant gene banks is crucial especially In Russia where the Vavilov Institute in St Petersburg lacks finances for the proper upkeep of 345.000 samples of barley, rice, vegetables and other basic food and fodder crops. lie said the United States through the Agency for International Development has already pledged 400,000 dollar of the 2.6 million dollar required for rehabilitating the institute
Hawtin also said two plant gene banks In Somalia were recently destroyed in the clan warfare there However, he noted that genes of Somali plants that were removed from Somalia to be stored in gene banks in Kenya In 1989 are available to rehabilitate agriculture in Somalia after stability returns to that country