Policies and programmes for agricultural development: the role of economic-social science analysis and of research agencies in seeking solutions

The rapid increase in world population makes it vitally urgent to increase food production. The governments of developed and developing countries must be willing to take action not only in the face of hunger, but concentrate on long range aspects of the food problem. World food supplies are, and probably will be, distributed in accordance with purchasing power or effective demand and not according to nutritional requirements. A permanent solution to the problem includes population control and major efforts to plan agricultural research directed toward a long term solution of the agricultural production and food supply problem, particularly in those climatic zones where very little research has been historically undertaken