A/42/427
English
Page 122
CHAPTER 5 FOOD SECURITY: SUSTAINING THE POTENTIAL
1. The world produces more food per head of population today than ever before in human history. In 1985, it produced nearly 500 kilogrammes per head of cereals and root crops, the primary sources of food.[1] Yet amid this abundance, more than 730 million people did not eat enough to lead fully productive working lives.[2] There are places where too little is grown; there are places where large numbers cannot afford to buy food. And there are broad areas of the Earth, in both industrial and developing nations, where increases in food production are undermining the base for future production.
2. The agricultural resources and the technology needed to feed growing populations are available. Much has been achieved over the past few decades. Agriculture does not lack resources; it lacks policies to ensure that the food is produced where it is needed and in a manner that sustains the livelihoods of the rural poor. We can meet this challenge by building on our achievements and devising new strategies for sustaining food and livelihood security.
I. ACHIEVEMENTS
3. Between 1950 and 1985, cereal production outstripped population growth, increasing from around 700 million tons to over 1,800 million tons, an annual growth rate of around 2.7 per cent.[3] This increase helped to meet escalating demands for cereals caused by population growth and rising incomes in developing countries and by growing needs for animal feed in developed countries. Yet regional differences in performance have been large. (See Table 5–1.)
4. As production has increased. sharply in some regions and demand in others, the pattern of world trade in foods, especially cereals, has changed radically. North America exported barely 5 million tons of food grains yearly before the Second World War; it exported nearly 120 million tons during the 1980s. Europe's grain deficit is very much lower now, and the bulk of North American exports are to the USSR. Asia, and Africa. Three countries – China, Japan, and the USSR – took half the world exports in the early 19805; much of the rest went to relatively wealthy developing countries, such as Middle Eastern oil exporters. Several poor agricultural countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, have become net importers of food grains. Still, although one-fourth of sub-Saharan Africa's population relied on imported grains in 1984, that region's imports have
- ↑ Based on data from FAO, Production Yearbook 1985 (Rome: 1986).
- ↑ Based on World Bank estimates. for 1980, according to which 340 million eople in developing countries (excluding China) did not have enough income to attain a minimum calorie standard that would prevent serious health risks and stunted growth in children, and 730 million were below a higher standard that would allow an active working life. See World Bank, Poverty and Hunger: Issues and Options for Food Security in Developing Countries (Washington, D.C: 1986).
- ↑ FAO, Yearbook of Food and Aqriculture Statistics, 1951 (Rome: 1952); FAO, Production Yearbook 1985, op. cit.
