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per unit of area. Even if the farming stan

dards of the most advanced countries could

be reached and passed there would still be

insufficient food, and to obtain adequate diets

these Asiatic countries would have to become

large-scale food importers.

The Government of India has published

nutritional targets and is developing a plan

for agriculture. China, in her periodic report,

indicates ambitious production goals. Siam,

subject to approval of her application for

membership, has requested FAO to send a

technical mission to advise on agricultural

expansion. The findings of the recent Rice

Study Group, whose report6 is before the

Conference for consideration, emphasize the

urgent need for increasing supplies of that

basic food, and FAO, if the Conference

approves, will take steps to provide special

services for the rice-producing areas. Owing

to the rapid rate of population increase, every

year’s delay makes these problems more

intractable. The revolutionary army of agri

cultural scientists and technicians must move

in quickly.

Quite different is the case of the sparsely

populated underdeveloped countries. Here

the economic problems are less intricate and

the scope for agricultural expansion is large.

Vast areas of land remain unsettled, chiefly

because engineers and doctors have not yet

been put to work to make them habitable.

Recently, one or two projects have been

launched which represent a foretaste of what

can be done. For instance, the British and

French Governments have each announced

plans for large-scale mechanized cultivation

o f peanuts for oil in their African territories.

These programmes, if successful, will yield

very substantial tonnages o f oil, yet they

relate to only a tiny fraction o f the cultivable

land.

Or again, certain Latin-American

Governments— for example Brazil and Mexico

— have announced large immigration pro

grammes which involve opening up new lands

for settlement and agricultural production.

In both continents pioneering has to be

undertaken. In both there is a vast frontier

to be pushed back. The possibilities are as

yet quite uncomprehended. What is involved

is large-scale primary developments of roads,

railways, rivers, agriculture, and industry.

New lands have to be settled. Sparsely

settled lands could be opened for develop

ment by drainage or irrigation or disease

control measures. Both continents could

FAO,

Report of the Rice Study Group,

Washington, August 1947.

produce food far in excess of their needs and

they could become granaries for supplying

densely populated regions of the world. But if

they are to be asked to invest heavily in

production for export they must have some

assurance that the eventual products will be

bought at reasonable prices. They may hesi

tate and hold back unless the nations can

develop satisfactory international arrange

ments for disposing of all the food that is

produced.

Finally, there is a group of agriculturally

more advanced countries in which also much

remains to be done. There is still scope for

far greater application of scientific methods

to everyday farming, for greater concentra

tion on products which yield a high return,

for mechanization and for improvement in

labour conditions, for modernization of

marketing and of the food-processing indus

tries. The French agricultural plan includes

specific targets in all these fields.

All these types of programme for the

different continents have as their common

aim what, in the words of the Copenhagen

resolution7, was described as “ developing

and organizing production, distribution, and

utilization of basic foods to provide diets on

a health standard for the people of all coun

tries. ” This central problem of development

was specifically referred to the Preparatory

Commission on World Food Proposals whose

report is before the Geneva Conference8. In

this field the Commission reported at some

length and made numerous valuable recom

mendations to member Governments and

to FAO.

The services provided by the staff of FAO

in connection with development programmes

can take various forms : technical aid in the

shape of missions, special regional services

through which FAO can co-operate directly

and continuously with administrators and

technicians on the spot, and meetings of

representatives of small or large numbers of

Governments to study or recommend on pro

posals of mutual concern. In addition FAO,

as so strongly recommended by the Prepara

tory Commission, is prepared to cultivate

every appropriate opportunity of co-operating

with the United Nations and the various

specialized agencies, notably the International

Bank for Reconstruction and Development,

7 FAO,

Report of the Second Session of the

Conference,

Washington, December 1946, p. 5.

8 FAO,

Report of the FAO Preparatory

Commission on World Food Proposals,

Washing

ton, February 1947.

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