[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 20 (Tuesday, March 1, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
  THE ROLE OF AGRICULTURE RESEARCH IN MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF WORLD 
                                 HUNGER

                                 ______


                        HON. BENJAMIN A. GILMAN

                              of new york

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 1, 1994

  Mr. GILMAN. Mr. Speaker, I wanted to call my colleagues' attention to 
an article that appeared in the February 28 edition of the Washington 
Post. The article talks about how world famine has been averted through 
the advances made in agriculture research during the past 25 years. In 
particular, it points out the success of our foreign aid investment in 
the international agricultural research centers around the world.
  It is somewhat ironic that the Agency for International Development 
has chosen to reduce its efforts in agriculture research and shift its 
focus almost exclusively to rapid population growth, environmental 
degradation, and building democracy. I do not mean to minimize any of 
those areas. However, if AID is to justify its new focus on initiatives 
that are cost effective and where a comparative advantage can be shown, 
no better candidate exists than agricultural research.
  Mr. Speaker, to encourage my colleagues to give this issue thoughtful 
consideration as we work on the fiscal year 1995 foreign assistance 
budget and the new Foreign Assistance Act, I submit for the Record the 
article entitled ``Despite Horn of Plenty, Some Feasts of Famine Abound 
Across World'' that appeared in yesterday morning's Washington Post.
  The article follows:

               [From the Washington Post, Feb. 28, 1994]

   Despite Horn of Plenty, Some Feasts of Famine Abound Across World

                         (By Boyce Rensberger)

       Thanks to ``the greatest agricultural revolution in 
     history,'' the world's food supply over recent decades has 
     grown faster than its population and probably will continue 
     to do so for at least two or three decades to come, a group 
     of agricultural scientists and economists has concluded.
       But because at least 800 million people remain in deep 
     poverty, most of them in southern Asia and sub-Saharan 
     Africa, they are unable to purchase enough of the abundance 
     to lift them out of chronic malnutrition--even with world 
     food prices lower than at any time since 1980.
       Despite reminders of these serious and persistent 
     inequities, two dozen experts who met for three days earlier 
     this month at the International Food Policy Research 
     Institute here were generally optimistic that massive famine 
     can be avoided so long as research programs continue to 
     develop improved crop varieties and smarter farming methods. 
     Among the hopeful signs that emerged at the meeting were 
     these:
       Despite declines in the land area being farmed, figures 
     from the U.S. Department of Agriculture show the amount of 
     grain being harvested from each acre worldwide is growing 
     fast enough to keep production rising at least as fast as the 
     population grows for the foreseeable future.
       The coming of free markets to formerly communist countries, 
     which once imported 22 percent of the world's traded grain, 
     is projected to turn them into grain exporters by 2010, 
     according to a World Bank estimate.
       Early in this decade, developing countries as a whole 
     surpassed developed countries in total grain production, 
     according to figures from the United Nations Food and 
     Agriculture Organization.
       Some of the fastest growth in crop yields is happening in 
     the Third World. West Africa's Cameroon, for example, is the 
     world leader in boosting rice harvest per acre and now gets 
     higher yields than many Asian countries. Chinese farmers now 
     grow more wheat per acre than do U.S. farmers.
       ``Meeting that world's food requirements during the 21st 
     century should be increasingly easy if past trends in 
     production and consumption continue,'' Donald O. Mitchell, a 
     World Bank economist, told the meeting. ``World food 
     production has more than kept pace with population growth and 
     rates of growth of food production show few signs of 
     slowing.''


                        Agricultural Revolution

       Donald O. Plucknett, who recently retired as scientific 
     adviser to a global network of agricultural research centers 
     in Third World countries, was also optimistic: ``We've been 
     living through the greatest agricultural revolution in 
     history and most people probably aren't aware of it.''
       Over the past 25 years the network of 18 international 
     research centers has led the conversion of Third World 
     agriculture, Plucknett said, from a tradition-bound 
     enterprise to a science-based industry. Researchers at the 
     centers use the latest scientific methods to develop new crop 
     varieties and farming techniques suited to local conditions. 
     Plucknett called it the world's largest research enterprise.
       The centers, each of which has research and training 
     programs in several countries, are coordinated by the 
     Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research 
     (CGIAR).
       The current prospects contrast sharply with pronouncements 
     in the 1970s that the world was on the brink of massive 
     famine. In 1971, for example, population biologist Paul 
     Ehrlich said, ``In the 1970s and 1980s hundreds of millions 
     of people will starve to death in spite of any crash programs 
     embarked upon now.'' Such forecasts were based largely on the 
     Malthusian assumption that the world would reach the maximum 
     possible agricultural productivity before population stopped 
     growing.


                            Man-Made Famines

       While there were famines in Africa and Asia, they were 
     brief and resulted mainly from political and military causes. 
     And, for all the human suffering, the famines did not reach 
     the predicted scale. Since then some of the most famine-prone 
     countries, including India and China, have become self-
     sufficient in food, thanks largely to the adoption of high-
     yielding crop varieties, more fertilizer and more advanced 
     farming methods developed by the CGIAR system of research 
     centers.
       Although the picture looks promising for the world as a 
     whole and for most people in developing countries, the 
     experts said serious deficiencies persist in sub-Saharan 
     Africa and in parts of other regions. Africa has been unable 
     to adopt many of the advances developed by the international 
     research centers because it lacks needed infrastructure such 
     as good farm-to-market roads and banks that will lend to 
     small farmers. Without the leg-up that these things can 
     provide, the majority of Africans struggle as subsistence 
     farmers, growing just enough to survive but not to thrive. 
     Food production in Africa is growing but not as fast as the 
     population.
       The chief cause of the hunger that persists in the world, 
     Plucknett said, is not an inadequate food supply but a lack 
     of money to buy food. ``There's plenty of food on the world 
     market but some people don't have the wherewithal to enter 
     the market,'' Plucknett said.
       ``I do believe that we can continue to raise world food 
     yields if we do the right things,'' Plucknett said. One 
     reason is that there is still a large gap between what 
     farmers routinely produce and the record yields that are 
     attained here and there when all the conditions are just 
     right.
       The fact that crops occasionally reach those records means 
     they have the potential to do so every time with optimal 
     management of factors including soil fertility, irrigation, 
     fertilizer and pest control. Researchers at the centers have 
     long known that subtle shifts in the timing and amounts of 
     fertilizer, water and pest control methods can make big 
     differences in yield.


                        Trying to Increase Yield

       Because the amount of land under cultivation is not likely 
     to grow, most experts at the meeting said agriculture had no 
     choice but to become even more intensive--growing tow or 
     three crops a year on the same land and breeding new 
     varieties that yield more food per plant.
       Experts at the meeting said genetic engineering methods 
     could someday enhance crops still further but that the 
     benefits are not likely to be felt for several decades. Until 
     then conventional methods of plant breeding are likely to 
     continue to produce better crop varieties.
       ``We're not running out of resources,'' said Per Pinstrup-
     Anderson, head of the policy research institute that hosted 
     the meeting. ``That gives us hope.''
       One dwindling resource, however, is financial support for 
     the CGIAR's research centers. Over the system's history some 
     30 countries, six foundations and 10 international finance 
     institutions have contributed funding. Together, they boosted 
     the budget to $247 million in 1992. Last year, however, 12 
     countries cut their support--the United States by the largest 
     amount, dropping $6.5 million to $41.6 million. Overall, 
     CGIAR funding for 1993 dropped more than 7 percent. Officials 
     say the promise of further cuts this year could force them to 
     close some research centers.
       Whether food production continues to grow, Pinstrup-
     Anderson said, may depend on the willingness of donor 
     countries to maintain their support. ``It's really up to 
     us,'' he said, ``whether we want to have a happy future or an 
     unhappy future.''

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