The State of Food and Agriculture, 1972

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATIONOF THE UNITED NATIONS SPECIAL CHATERS In addition to the usual review of the recent world food and agriculture situation, each issue of this report from 1957 has included one or more special studies of problems of longer term interest.Special chapters in earlier issues have covered the following subjects: Factors influencing the trend of food consumption Postwar changes in some institutional factors affecting agriculture Food and agricultural developments in Africa south of the Sahara The growth of forest industries and their impact on the world's forests Agricultural incomes and levels of living in countries at different stages of economic development Some general problems of agricultural development inless developed countries in the light of postwar experience Programing for agricultural development Land reform and institutional change Agricultural extension, education and research in Africa, Asia and Latin America The role of forest industries in the attack on economic underdevelopment The livestock industry in less developed countries Basic factors affecting the growth of productivity in agriculture Fertilizer use: spearhead of agricultural development Protein nutrition: needs and prospects Synthetics and their effects on international trade Agriculture and industrialization Rice in the world food economy Incentives and disincentives for farmers in developing countries The management of fishery resources Raising agricultural productivity in developing countries through techno- logical improvement Improved storage and its contribution to world food supplies Agricultural marketing improvement programmes: some lessons from rccent experience Modernization of institutions to promote development Agriculture at the threshold of the Second Development Decade Water pollution and its effects on living aquatic resources and fisheries THE STATE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE 1972 WORLD REVIEW REVIEW BY REGIONS EDUCATION AND TRAINING FOR DEVELOPMENT ACCELERATING AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN THE DEVELOPING COUNTRIES FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS Rome, 1972 The statistical material in this publication has been prepared from the information available to FAO up to 1 October 1972 The designations employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal or constitutional status of any country, territory or sea area,orconcerningthedelimitationof frontiers. 0FAO 1972 Printed in Italy CONTENTS Foreword VII 2. Review by regions 43 Highlights . X WESTERN EUROPE 43 1. World review Agricultural production 43 Trade in agricultural products 45 Prices and incomes 47 AGRICULTURE Structural reform programmes 49 Agricultural policies and problems 49 Production 1971 1 Production 1972 5 EASTERN EUROPE AND THE U. S. S.R 54 SOURCES OF GROWTH 11 Agricultural production 54 The five-year plans and related agricultural pol- INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN AGRICULTURAL icies 56 PRODUCTS 15 The CMEA integration plan. 59 Export earnings 17 International prices 17 NORTH AMERICA 60 Agricultural imports 18 Agricultural production. 61 Stocks 19 Trade in agricultural products 62 Agricultural prices and farm incomes 64 FOOD PRICES 21 Problems, policies and programmes. 65 OCEANIA 72 FOOD AND NUTRITION SITUATION 22 Agricultural production 72 Trade in agricultural products 73 FISHERIES 25 Agricultural prices and incomes 74 Production and trade 25 Problems, policies and programmes. 75 Policies and other issues 26 Outlook 30 LATIN AMERICA 77 FORESTRY 30 Agricultural production 77 Trade in agricultural products 81 Production and trade 30 Development plans and policies 82 Forest policies . 36 Regional economic integration 84 DEVELOPMENT ASSISTANCE 37 FAR EAST 86 The World Bank Group and the financing of agriculture 39 Developing countries 86 Regional development banks 40 Agricultural production 86 The World Food Programme 41 High-yielding cereal varieties 89 Fertilizer use 90 Education and training for development .. 125 Trade in agricultural products 91 Regional economic cooperation 93 PatternoftheFirst Development Decade Development plans and policies 93 (1960-70) 125 Agricultural employment and unemployment 96 Targets for the Second Development Decade 127 Planning and organization of national systems 129 Economic criteria, manpower planning and Japan . 100 employment generation. 131 Trade in agricultural products 100 Some areas of special concern 133 Principal problems and policies 101 Conclusions 139 People's Republic of China 102 Accelerating agricultural research in the developing countries 141 NEAR EAST 103 Advances in agricultural technology and their impact on developing countries. 142 Developing countries 103 Some lessons from the past 145 The resource base for agricultural research 148 Agricultural production 103 Determining priorities 150 Trade in agricultural products 105 Priorities and problem areas 154 Development plans and policies 107 Conclusions 162 Agrarian reform 109 Israel 110 Annex tables Trade in agricultural products 111 Explanatory note: FAO index numbers of agricultural, fishery and forest production and AFRICA 111 trade. 166 1 Volume of production of major agricul- Developing countries 1 1 1 tural, fishery and forest products 167 Agricultural production 114 2 Volume of exports of major agricultural, Trade in agricultural products 115 fishery and forest products. 173 Development plans and policies 117 3 World average export unit values of select- Rural employment in tropical Africa 119 ed agricultural, fishery and forest products 180 Least developed countries 122 4 Volume of imports of major agricultural, fishery and forest products. 182 122 South Africa 5 Stocks of selected agricultural products 187 Agricultural production and income 122 6 Annual changes in consumer prices:all Trade in agricultural products 123 items and food. 188 NOTE The following symbols are used in statistical Figures instatisticaltables may not add up tables: because of rounding. Percent changes from one year to none or negligible another have been calculated from unrounded figures. ... not available Unless otherwise indicated, the metric system is used throughout.For explanation of the coverage 1970/71signifiesacrop, marketing orfiscal and methods of calculating the FAO index numbers year running from one calendar year to the next. of agricultural production and international trade in 1970-71 signifiestheaveragefortwocalendar agricultural products, see the explanatory note to years. the Annex tables. vi FOREWORD Because 1971 was the first yearofthe Second United Nations Development Decade, the performance of the world's agriculture must inevitably be assessed against thetargets set by the international community for this period.Unfortunately it was not a particularly good year for the agricultural sector in the developing countries.That world production maintained its long-term annual increase of about 3 percent was due to substantialex- pansions in the developed countries, where incomes are relatively high and nutritiongen- erally adequate.In the developing countries the rise in production was between 1 and 2 percent, whichis much less thanin recent yectrs and well below the target of the Second Development Decade of an average annual increaseof4 percent.For 1972, preliminary hiformation suggests that no acceleration has occurred in thisrate of increase. Satisfactory production increases were achieved in Africa and the Near East.In the Far East, where encouragingly large gains have been achieved in recentyears, the 1971 production increase was disappointing, partly as a result of the hostilities in Bangladesh. However, India, the most populous country of that heavily populated region, hada com- paratively good year (although not as good as some of the immediately preceding ones), and its foodgrain stocks have now been built up to a most satisfactory level.The Latin American region had little if any increase in agricultural production in 1971, owing to adverse weather in Argentina and Cuba. In assessing the performance of agriculture, the events of a single season of course mean very little.The "seven lean years and seven fat years" are as old as history.Undoubt- edly most of the production setbac1c in the developing countries in 1971 can be attributed to adverse weather or to civil disturbances, and we in FAO have also learned that the revisions to our preliminary production indices are frequently upward.But for each year that is below average, a better than average one is needed to get back on the trend, while what is hoped for inthe Second Development Decade is a good deal better than the recent trend.Thus, even if the performance of agriculture in the developing countries is much better in 1972, it will be necessary to reconsider very seriously whether government policies in the developing countries themselves and among the major aid donors are adequate to achieve the targets of the Second Development Decade.Although in Asia, for example, the full possibilities of the high-yiekling cereal varieties are undoubtedly still very far from being exhausted, it may be that we are reaching the end of the period of easy gains (in the climatically favoured areas, with large modern farms, etc.), and that for future progress much greater efforts will be needed, in particular to extend the new technology to the millions of small farmers.Price policies may also require rethinking

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