793 



Storage, grading, and market intelligence must also be handled ef- 

 ficiently if a marketing system is to be satisfactory. The lack of ade- 

 quate storage facilities contributes to wide seasonal price fluctuations, 

 costly to small farmers. This same lack can have national conse- 

 quences. For example, Iran was forced to export some of her bumper 

 wheat crop in 1968 because there were inadequate facilities for storing 

 it. Some storage is also essential for such inputs as fertilizers and 

 insecticides. 



Grading systems are important because they give buyers and sellers 

 a comman point of reference and thus can speed the sale of large 

 amounts of grain. Grain can change hands in vast quantities in the 

 United States without being seen by either buyer or seller, because the 

 elaborate grading system provides a standard that is thoroughly 

 understood. In contrast, grain sales in India may consist of no more 

 than a few sacks, which change hands after prolonged negotiations, 

 with the buyer personally feeling, smelling, and perhaps tasting the 

 product. This type of primitive transfer system obviously hampers the 

 full realization of the benefits of the Green Revolution. 



Finally, there is the matter of market intelligence. A country can 

 have a surplus of food in one area and a deficit in another, even if it 

 has an efficient transportation system. A developing country needs in- 

 formation on possible export surpluses lest it export too much or be 

 overcautious and export too little. Thus market intelligence can be 

 a very important adjunct to the process whereby an LDC earns foreign 

 exchange, a vital part of the total development process. 



THE PROBLEM OF TASTE 



It is a particular irony of the Green Revolution that the extra food 

 made available by the high-yielding seeds should meet with consumer 

 resistance. There have been widespread complaints about both the taste 

 and the texture of the new wheat and rice. Research now in progress is 

 focused on the mundane question of cooking and milling properties of 

 the "miracle grains." 



Dealing with Shortages of Protein in the LDC 8 



Probably the most important of the qualitative deficiencies from 

 which the LDCs suffer is the shortage of protein, a class of compounds 

 essential to life.^^ Protein is a generic term for a group of nitrogenous 

 compounds, the amino acids. Protein is essential to the maintenance 

 and growth of the human body, as body protein is continually break- 

 ing down and must be resupplied. The need for protein is strongest in 

 preschool children, and pregnant and nursing women. Yet according 

 to AID the typical child in a less developed country usually gets the 

 poorest food in the family. This is because of a common notion that 

 he is able to digest only bland foods, and because most mothers in 

 these countries £iow nothing of the nutritive value of foods nor how 

 to prepare them so as to retain their nutritional value. 



"U.S. Agency for International Development. "The Protein Gap. AID's Role In Re- 

 ducing Malnutrition In Developing Countries" (Washington, U.S. Qovernment Printing 

 Office. 1970), page 7. 



