World Food Council

MAC/WFY

Page-178

0230_553559_21_cha17

178

197090. The World Food Crisis of the 1970s and its Aftermath

was, in the words of the Council, to lend a `sharper sense of direction to the overall
efforts to increase food production in the developing countries'. The following
were criteria and guidelines established for determining FPCs:

· Per capita income of under $500 a year (in 1975 prices) with special emphasis

on even lower income countries.

· A projected cereals deficit by 1985 of 500,000 tons or more and/or a cereals

deficit of 20 per cent or more as a proportion of estimated cereal consumption.

· Degree of protein-calorie malnutrition in terms of the proportion of the popu-

lation that was malnourished or in terms of the average availability of protein
calories in relation to minimum requirements.

· Insufficient average increase in food production, total and per capita, during

the last decade.

· Potential for rapid, efficient and socio-economically well-distributed increases

in food production, including the availability of under-utilized resources to
produce food.

· Serious balance of payments constraints which precluded necessary food

imports.

On the basis of these criteria, 43 FPCs were identified, the situation of eight

of which was regarded as `extremely severe', 23 `very severe' and 12 `severe'.
These FPCs accounted for more than half the population of developing coun-
tries (excluding China) and for over half their projected food deficits by 1985.
In applying the above criteria, it was agreed that special consideration should be
given to the need to support the intent of countries to implement policies and
programmes specifically designed to ensure that productive efforts fully utilized
the human and other resources of rural areas. They also contained practical meas-
ures to implement social and other reforms consistent with these objectives and
with an equitable distribution of the food and income benefits of production
programmes. It was also agreed that care should be taken not to interfere with the
sovereign rights of each country to decide its own priorities and policies. The list
of FPCs would be reviewed and further work carried out to refine and complement
the criteria.

International agencies, including the regional banks, might be asked to

co-operate with FPCs in determining specific measures and programmes to accel-
erate food production by at least 4 per cent per annum. They might also help
in indicating other measures (such as food aid and nutrition programmes) that
would be required to improve food supply while production was increased. It was
noted that the FPCs overlapped with other groups of countries classified by the
United Nations as deserving special attention. This underscored the commonality
of problems among poor countries but the other classifications did not focus on
the specific need to increase food production that was characteristic of the FPCs.
The Council called on the international community `effectively and substantially'
to increase its official development assistance to food and agricultural production
in order to achieve, `as soon as possible', at least a 4 per cent sustained rate of

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Useful links	World Food Council MAC/WFY Page-178 0230_553559_21_cha17 178 197090. The World Food Crisis of the 1970s and its Aftermath was, in the words of the Council, to lend a `sharper sense of direction to the overall efforts to increase food production in the developing countries'. The following were criteria and guidelines established for determining FPCs: · Per capita income of under $500 a year (in 1975 prices) with special emphasis on even lower income countries. · A projected cereals deficit by 1985 of 500,000 tons or more and/or a cereals deficit of 20 per cent or more as a proportion of estimated cereal consumption. · Degree of protein-calorie malnutrition in terms of the proportion of the popu- lation that was malnourished or in terms of the average availability of protein calories in relation to minimum requirements. · Insufficient average increase in food production, total and per capita, during the last decade. · Potential for rapid, efficient and socio-economically well-distributed increases in food production, including the availability of under-utilized resources to produce food. · Serious balance of payments constraints which precluded necessary food imports. On the basis of these criteria, 43 FPCs were identified, the situation of eight of which was regarded as `extremely severe', 23 `very severe' and 12 `severe'. These FPCs accounted for more than half the population of developing coun- tries (excluding China) and for over half their projected food deficits by 1985. In applying the above criteria, it was agreed that special consideration should be given to the need to support the intent of countries to implement policies and programmes specifically designed to ensure that productive efforts fully utilized the human and other resources of rural areas. They also contained practical meas- ures to implement social and other reforms consistent with these objectives and with an equitable distribution of the food and income benefits of production programmes. It was also agreed that care should be taken not to interfere with the sovereign rights of each country to decide its own priorities and policies. The list of FPCs would be reviewed and further work carried out to refine and complement the criteria. International agencies, including the regional banks, might be asked to co-operate with FPCs in determining specific measures and programmes to accel- erate food production by at least 4 per cent per annum. They might also help in indicating other measures (such as food aid and nutrition programmes) that would be required to improve food supply while production was increased. It was noted that the FPCs overlapped with other groups of countries classified by the United Nations as deserving special attention. This underscored the commonality of problems among poor countries but the other classifications did not focus on the specific need to increase food production that was characteristic of the FPCs. The Council called on the international community `effectively and substantially' to increase its official development assistance to food and agricultural production in order to achieve, `as soon as possible', at least a 4 per cent sustained rate of back to top Next page
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