Food and Agriculture Organization

In a general introduction to a survey of agricultural development in Latin America published recently by the Food and Agriculture Organization, the Director-General (Dodd) stressed the importance of the problem for the future development of the region. He pointed out that if the current rate of population increase continued, the population of the region would increase by 25 percent in the next ten years; in order to maintain even present standards of food consumption, therefore, agricultural output would have to be increased. Infact, he continued, per capita consumption had been rising, largely through decreased exports of food and increased imports of food; the implications of this policy were, however, undesirable in terms of the region's long-range development. Mr. Dodd emphasized that Latin America depended almost solely on the export of raw materials, largely agricultural products, for earning foreign exchange; a reduction in its earnings of foreign exchange resulting from fewer exports, coupled with the expenditure of a larger proportion of available foreign exchange for food imports, he pointed out, would delay general economic development which required large imports of industrial material. In order, therefore, to maintain the rate of economic development and at the same time to improve levels of food consumption, it was extremely important to increase greatly food and agricultural production.