AGRICULTURE 



response suited to latitude, especially 

 important in such crops as soybeans, 

 maize, and wheat. 



Each country must have capability 

 for continued breeding improvement 

 of the crop plants it produces. Plant 

 pathogens, for example, often de- 

 velop new strains virulent to plants 

 genetically resistant to old pathogens 

 within a new crop plant generation. 



Animal Science — Aside from the 

 relatively few true vegetarians in the 

 world, who abstain from milk and 

 eggs as well as from flesh, animal 

 protein foods are status foods. Elas- 

 ticity of demand for animal protein 

 foods in the developing countries, in 

 terms of consumer income, is very 

 high. As income permits, these peo- 

 ple will demand and obtain larger 

 amounts of animal protein foods. 



While this demand may divert 

 some cereals from human to animal 

 food, most animal protein foods in 

 the developing countries are and will 

 continue to be produced from forage 

 and milling offals and other products, 

 including garbage, rejected as human 

 food. There is, therefore, a very real 

 need for the development of research 

 and technological capability based on 

 the animal sciences in all countries of 

 the world. 



Among the principal problems re- 

 quiring attention is research and tech- 

 nology for the control and eradication 

 of animal diseases, parasites, and the 

 arthropod and other vectors of some 

 of the major diseases of animals and 

 man. An abbreviated list of the prin- 

 cipal diseases would include foot-and- 

 mouth disease, rinderpest, bovine 

 pleuro-pneumonia, East Coast fever, 

 African horse sickness, encephali- 

 tides, African swine fever, malaria, 

 trypanosomiasis, and schistosomiasis. 

 Schistosomiasis is a major restraint 

 on the full realization of the benefits 

 of irrigation in tropical countries. The 

 snail intermediate host of this para- 

 site thrives in irrigation ditches. Two 

 hundred million people are afflicted. 



Research is developing, or has de- 

 veloped, control methods for all the 

 diseases listed. Immunization, isola- 

 tion, and vector control are all im- 

 portant for one or more of them. 



Large game herbivores seem to be 

 genetically resistant to, or tolerant of, 

 some of these diseases. Research on 

 propagation and management of such 

 species may give new sources of ani- 

 mal food. 



Fisheries as Food Sources — There 

 is a very wide area of fisheries biol- 

 ogy, culture, and engineering essen- 

 tial to the scientific basis for world 

 food production. Quantitatively, fish- 

 eries constitute and have potential 

 for only a minor portion of the 

 world's food needs. However, in 

 many nations they represent a quali- 

 tatively excellent and preferred source 

 of protein and concomitant minor 

 nutrients essential to human health 

 and well-being. Methods of harvest, 

 preservation, and processing of ma- 

 rine and estuarine fish and shellfish 

 and methods of culture and propaga- 

 tion of estuarine, coastal, and anad- 

 romous species can protect and in- 

 crease these sources of high-quality 

 human food. 



In many countries, including our 

 own, pond culture of carp, trout, cat- 

 fish, crayfish, frogs, and other edible 

 fresh-water species have a substan- 

 tial potential for increasing supplies 

 of preferred, high-quality protein 

 foods. 



Beneficial eutrophication — utiliz- 

 ing animal wastes as nutrients in 

 controlled aquatic ecosystems — of- 

 fers substantial potential for increas- 

 ing food production, recycling wastes, 

 and enhancing the quality of the en- 

 vironment. Knowledge of fish and 

 shellfish nutritive requirements, their 

 reproductive requirements, their dis- 

 eases and parasites, toxins and con- 

 taminants, both chemical and biologi- 

 cal are areas needing research and 

 technological, institutional, and per- 

 sonnel capability in many countries. 



Arctic and antarctic food produ 

 tion might be increased by national 

 and international management of the 

 harvest of food species and regula- 

 tion of numbers of competing non- 

 food species. 



Food Protection — Achievement of 

 the important objective that our food 

 supply shall be safe and wholesome 

 requires a basis in many sciences and 

 a highly varied set of technological 

 capabilities that must be available in 

 every country. 



Among the principal problems are: 

 material toxicants (alkaloid and 

 others); mycotoxins, resulting from 

 certain strains of mold, potent in 

 parts per billion, carcinogenic in test 

 animals; botulinus toxin — food-poi- 

 soning organisms such as Salmonella; 

 insect infestations; and spoilage or- 

 ganisms. 



Protection by controlled environ- 

 ments, chemicals, cold, and steriliza- 

 tion requires intimate knowledge of 

 the physical and chemical nature of 

 food products and the effect of meth- 

 ods of protection on nutritive and 

 functional value and on safety and 

 wholesomeness. 



In India, the National Council of 

 Economic Advisers has estimated that 

 insects take 15 percent of the stand- 

 ing crop and another 10 percent after 

 it is harvested and stored. Losses 

 from rats are also severe both in 

 fields and storage bins. Use of plant- 

 protection chemicals increased from 

 six million acres in 1955 to a current 

 200 million acres. 



New Directions for Science 



The world is principally dependent 

 for its food supply on a very small 

 number of crop and livestock species. 

 Wheat, rice, rye, barley, oats, sor- 

 ghum, maize and millet, sugarcane, 

 sugar beets; potatoes, taco, cassava, 

 sweet potatoes; soybeans, cowpeas, 

 beans, and peas; vitamins, in variety, 

 a little protein of fair quality from 



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