Population and Food Supply1

Hunger continues to be an ever-present com panion of many millions of people. Although the farmers of the world have grown more food, they have not grown enough more to correct the serious undernutrition which has long existed in many countries. Since the end of World War II, food production has increased about as rapidly as world population, but it increased more rapidly in the richer, better-fed countries, while the poorer countries lagged behind. Two-thirds of the world's 3.3 billion people live in countries with national average diets which are nutritionally inadequate. The diet-deficient countries generally have high rates of population growth, about 2.1 per cent per year compared with about 1.3 per cent per year in the diet-adequate areas. In recent years the gap in available food supplies per person between the rich and the poor countries has been widening rather than narrow ing. A growing share of the increase of population in the less developed countries is being sustained by food shipments from the developed regions, especially North America. The possibilities of increasing food production are very large, and they are primarily dependent on increasing the yields of crops and of livestock. New methods, new strains of plants, im proved methods of cultivation, greatly increased use of fertiliz ers, and greater and more effective use of water are major elements in increasing yields. Nonconventional sources of food may in the future add significantly to available food supplies. In many countries, institutional changes are neces sary in order to enable farmers to benefit directly from in creased production and to make available the information, credit, tools, and supplies needed to increase yields. Rising educational levels are an essential element in programs for such increases.