775 



factors involved. The processes of population growth are not under- 

 stood. The statistics of food and population are poor. Even the tech- 

 niques for disseminating improved technology are faulty. Under 

 these conditions, the negotiation of positive diplomatic arrangments 

 and the task of planning programs to achieve the goal of food/ 

 population balance tend to be unsystematic and episodic. 



It may well be true that people in poor countries, with short life 

 spans, have strong motivation to reproduce : To perpetuate their own 

 families, and to assure old-age protection for themselves, are strongly 

 engrained cultural drives. The availability of technology' and the hope 

 of material betterment do not seem sufficient to moderate this motiva- 

 tion. External efforts to aid in the control of the birth rate in a poor 

 country may be met with suspicion and resentment. This combina- 

 tion of factors constitutes an exacting challenge to diplomacy. 



Weaknesses in the Fundamental Data on Food and Agnrvlfvre 



Agricultural production in the LDCs tends to be largely for subsis- 

 tence. Since the product does not enter channels of trade, and is not 

 concentrated, it is difficult to gather reliable information on the amount 

 of food actually produced in such a country. There is also a 

 deficiency of information concerning storage, credit, transport, farm 

 organizations, marketing and trade, and agricultural manpower re- 

 quirements. In assisting an LDC in planning an agricultural develop- 

 ment program, such information is essential, but constructing an or- 

 ganizational framework to provide it is a long and costly undertaking. 

 Some other informational shortcomings relative to food production 

 in the less developed countries were described by Dr. Joel Bernstein, 

 Assistant Administrator for Technical Assistance of AID: 



* * * We are impressed by the need for a great deal more knowledge of such 

 elemental subjects as soil and water as they are found in the developing world. 

 Without exhausting the list, one can cite needs for better mapping, more soils 

 analysis, greater knowledge of the interaction of soil and water, better methods 

 of water management. We really know next to nothing about how to farm pro- 

 ductively in the humid tropics, where a systematic study of soil and water re- 

 lationships is only one obvious need/ 



Other authorities have pointed out that the new high-yielding seed 

 and plant varieties were developed within and for given ecological 

 and climatological conditions. It has been possible to transfer the re- 

 sults over a wide area geographically, but a somewhat narrow one 

 with respect to ecology and climate. Additional information is needed 

 if the area of transferability is to be increased, not only within the 

 limits already defined, but for the development of new genetic, stocks 

 suitable to the climatic and ecological conditions of the areas where 

 they are to be grown. The need for information means, of course, a 

 need for research — specifically, for what is known as adaptive re- 

 search directed to solving urgent and pressing problems, as opposed 

 to that type of. research which simply increases the sum total of hu- 

 man knowledge. The subjects for adaptive research in agriculture, ac- 

 cording to J. George Harrar and Sterling Wortman of the Rockefeller 

 Foundation, are : 



' "The Changing Role of American Technical Assistance in Agricultural Development." 

 Public lecture before the Cornell Workshop on Some Emerging Issues Accompanyiijg 

 Recent Breakthroughs in Food Production" (Mareli 31, 1970). 



