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  • Title: Population, agriculture and food.
    Author: UNESCO. Regional Office for Education in Asia and the Pacific.
    Journal: Bull Unesco Reg Off Educ Asia Pac; 1982 Jun; (23):245-59. PubMed ID: 12265658.
    Abstract:
    Data published by the UN Statistical Office and the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) indicates that food production in the world grew at an average annual rate of 2.5% during the period 1961-65 to 1980 whereas during the same period the population growth rate was 1.9% per annum, declining further to 1.8 toward the late 1970s. Yet, the food production growth trend has been most uneven. The situation in Asia has been more or less similar to the global trend. During 1962-72 the rate of population growth increased to 2.5% whereas the annual increase in food production dropped from 3.1 to 2.7%. Throughout the remainder of the 1970s, food production barely managed to keep pace with population growth. Closer analysis reveals that in about the mid 1960s food production fell behind population growth, and near famine situations developed in certain drought affected areas of India, Indonesia, and Pakistan. These countries had to import food to meet the situation at the cost of their economic development programs. According to the UN projections, the region's population will continue to grow at an average of 1.7% per annum up to 2000 despite the declining fertility trend. To cope with the population growth rate and the changing pattern of food consumption even at the present level of nutrition, Asian nations will have to increase food production annually at a 3% compound rate. An increase in food production basically means increasing the inputs of different factors of production such as land and water, labor, materials, and various types of capital and technological know how. The application of these factors in the developing countries largely depends on the infrastructure and services provided by the governments. 2 approaches are generally made in an effort to achieve the objective of increasing food production: horizontal expansion approach, used to bring new land under cultivation so as to produce more food; and the vertical expansion approach, used to increase the productivity of land through the adoption of scientific methods of farming. These include the use of high yielding crop varieties, the application of fertilizers, the use of insecticides and pesticides, weeding, farm mechanization, provision of irrigation, double cropping, mixed cropping, and the provision of widespread extension education and training facilities. Some of these inputs are examined with special reference to the degree of contribution which they can make in increasing food production, distribution, and supply.
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