[Status and perspectives of agrarian production and food supply in developing countries]

In the early 1980s the agrarian-economic situation and the food supply of most developing countries is characterized by serious complications and vast contradictions. Contrary to the predictions made at the world food conferences in 1970 and 1974, a general retardation has taken place in the rates of increase of food production, and the nutrient crisis has extended. The FAO prognosis 'Agriculture: Toward 2000'- based on annual growth rates of 4%--outlines the enormous problems to be solved in the struggle against hunger and malnutrition in the developing countries. Because of its inadequacies and contradictions this document of the FA cannot, however, be considered as a complex strategy for the fight against hunger, poverty, and underdevelopment, or as a general orientation for shaping the agrarian and nutritional policy in the developing countries.