THE STATE OF FOOD A D AGRICULTURE 1953 PART REVIEW AND OUTLOOK ....00446. I FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS ROME, ITALY ATJGUST, 1953 THE WORLD FOOD SITUATION AND AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS AND STATISTICS SECOND WORLD FOOD SURVEY, 1952 S0.50, 2s. 6d. for the first time information on the progress In the manufacture A broad statistical survey of how the world's population is nour- and utilization of farm machinery and equipment and on the world ished.Against the unsatisfactory present situation are set desir- trade in these products. able food consumption targets for 1960.In the introduction, the Director - General of FAO, Mr. NorrisE. Dodd, writes :" The MONTHLY BULLETIN OF AGRICULTURAL ECONO- information gives no ground for complacency.The average food MICS AND STATISTICS Single copy... S0.50, 2s.6d. supply per person over large areas of the world, five years after Annual subscription...$5.00, 25s. the war was over, was still lower than before the war.The pro- Publishedatthemiddle ofeach month, this bulletin gives portion of the world's population with inadequate food supplies crop statistics based on information available on the 25th of the has grown appreciably larger.World food production hasin- preceding month.Each issue contains one or two articles on deed expanded since the end of the war, but much of this achieve- matters of current 'interest in the field of agricultural economics ment representsmerely arecovery from wartime devastation and an extensive section devoted to commodity notes.Sample and dislocation...The situation which the survey disclosesis a copies of the bulletin will be sent on request to the Documents challenge... Service, FAO. Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, Rome.(Published in English, French Spanish) THE FARM AND THE CITY, by Lawrence Witt and Mordecai Ezekiel, 1953 $1.00, 5s. Yearboolc of Facts from all over the world show that " incomes of farm and FOOD AND AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS, 1952. city people rise and fall together.II any group is depressed, other PART I- PRODUCTION PART Il- TRADE groups and the nation feel the effects.Likewise the economic Per Volume $3.50, 17s. 6d. activities of the nations of the world change together. This two-volume yearbook continues the statistical series begun It looks like a very simple statement of the obvious, yet, as the by the International Institute of Agriculture in 1910. authors of this short pamphlet point out, "¡n making day-to-day Both parts cover statistics of crops and livestock numbers, and policy people and nations often act asif it were not true. new features are added every year covering population questions Of the two authors, Dr. Lawrence Witt is Professor of Agri- as they affect agriculture, and such questions as calorie intake,etc. cultural Economics at the Michigan State College, USA. and Dr. Mordecai Ezekiel, Deputy Director of the Economics Division of Yearbook of FAO, served many years with the United States Department of Agriculture and is the author of many publications on economics, FISHERIES STATISTICS, 1950-51 $3.50, 17s. 6d. agriculture and statistics. The third yearbook continues and expands the data published The many pictorialized diagrams with the varied data from all in the 1947 and the 1948-49 editions, which were supplemented over the world, provide a lively and interesting demonstration of throughout the years by the statistics published In the FAO Fisheries the facts and relationships discussed. Bulletin,andlatterly in the FAO Monthly Bulletinof Agricultural Apart from the general reader, this booklet would serve as an Economics andStatistics.The statisticalcoveragebegins with excellent introductory text on some of the basic economics of 1938 and ends with 1951. agriculture for students in secondary schools and in the first year of college.At the same time the vast amount of factual information Yearbook of in the charts provides background material for more intensive FOREST PRODUCTS STATISTICS, 1952. $2.50, 12s. 6d theoretical discussion. This yearbook of forest products statistics includes notes on the PROGRESS AND ECONOMIC PROBLEMS OF salient features of the current world situation and has appeared FARM MECHANIZATION, 1950. $1.00, 5s. annually since 1947.The 1947 edition is almost out of print, as Second Printing.Facts have been drawn from Europe, America the demand for complete setsis steady, because the yearbooks Africa, and the Near and Far East.The report brings together are establishing therelves as standard reference works. A SELECTION OF RECENT FAO PUBLICATIONS THE STATE OF FOOD AND AGRICULTURE 1953 PA T I- REVIEW AND OUTLOOK FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS ROME, ITALY AUGUST 1953 NOTE The statistical material inthispublicationhasbeen prepared from such information as has been available to FAO not later than 30 July 1953 Printed inItaly CONTENTS Foreword 1 Chapter I - Summary 5 Regional Summary 6 Summary by Commodities 8 Chapter II- World Review and Outlook Aaricultural Production 15 Food Consumption and Nutrition 19 International Trade in Agricultural Products 22 The Changing Pattern of World Trade in Foodstuffs 23 The WorldEconomic Situationin1952/53 and the Demand forAgricultural Products 30 Prices of Agricultural Products 32 Farm Income and Investment 34 The Economic Outlook for 1953 and 1954 39 Chapter III - Regional Review and Outlook Europe 45 North America 51 Latin America 55 Africa . 59 The Near East 61 The Far East 64 Oceania 70 Chapter IV - Review and Outlook by Commodities Wheat 77 Coarse Grains 79 Rice 82 Sugar 84 Livestock Products 86 Fisheries Products 89 Fats, Oils and Oilseeds 95 Fresh Fruit 97 Wine and Raisins 100 Coffee 100 Tea 102 Cocoa 103 Tobacco 105 Cotton 106 Wool 110 Jute 112 Rubber . 114 Hard Fibers . 115 Forest Products.................... 116 Fertilizers 121 Pesticides 122 Farm Machinery................... 122 Appendix - Note on Indices of Agricultural Production 125 Figures 1 Total and Per Caput Food Production and Population, Prewar and Postwar . 16 2WorldProductionofSelectedAgriculturalCommodities, 1951/52 - 1952/53 Average 17 3 Relative Magnitude of World Agricultural Production and of Food Production Per Caput by Principal Regions, 1934-38 and 1951/52- 1952/53 Averages. 19 4The Changing Pattern of World Trade in Agricultural Products Foodstuffs 25 Natural Fibers and Rubber 26 Beverages and Tobacco 27 All Agricultural Products 28 5 Development of International Trade in Wheat 29 6 Movement of Prices of Selected Foodstuffs and Raw Materials 33 7Prices of Agricultural Products at Farm and Wholesale and Food Prices at Retail 35 8 Milk Yields Per Cow in Selected European Countries 48 9 Cereal Supplies in the Far East 66 10 Monthly Average Prices of Fats and OilsinInternational Markets 1950-53 . 96 11 World Cotton Prices 1950/51- 1952/53 ........... 109 12 Wool Prices 1949-53 112 13 Rubber Prices in the United States and Malaya 1949-53 114 14 Prices of Sawn Softwood 1950-53 117 15 Prices of Wood Pulp 1950-53 117 16 Prices of Newsprint 1950-53 120 Iv FOREWORD In submitting the annual review of the world of more food and more capital goods for develop- food and agricultural situation for1952/53,I ment. have adopted the procedure of dividing the report In this contrast between the different regions into two parts.The first part, presented in this of the world are to be found the tuvo basic prob- docinnent, deals with the progress and problems lems of agriculture ;first, how to achieve stable of agriculture, fisheries and forestry in the past outlets for the growing agricultural production, year, and with the immediate outlook for the year and in particular to find ways of distributing more ahead. The second part will be a review of govern- of the increasing supplies of food in some areas to ments' longer-term plans and programs of agricul- the under-nourished populations who have such tural production, and an attempt to evaluate their great need of them ;second, how most effectively probable effect on, world agricultural production to raise agricultural productivity in the less devel- and trade, and on levelsof food consumption oped countries in order to provide more adequate during the next four or five years.This second supplies of food to their people and a reasonable part will be completed after the conclusion of standard. of life for their farmers, the regional meetings which FAO isholding In some respects the year 1952/53 marks a new the sumiller of 1953 in time for presentation to phase in time postwar food and agricultural situa- the Conference in November. tion.For the first time since 1939, though as yet Since the war the differences in agricultural insecurely, world production, on a global basis, production between the more developed and less caught up with the growth in world population. developed, regions of the world have tended to Moreover, the large stocks of wheat and other basic inci ease. Production has expanded rapidly in the foods which have been built up in some regions agriculturally more advanced countries.North should enable any future scarcitiesor potential American production in particular has outstiip- famines which ina.y develop in particular areas to be pecl the growth of population ;food consumption countered with much less difficulty than before. levels have improved, agricultural exports have At the same time, the recent accumulation of doubled, and even so, large stocks of some commod- stocks of foodstuffs in the dollar area and of raw itieshave recentlybeguntoaccumulate,in materials in some other comnries, together