Suchergebnisse

There is continuing concern throughout most of Africa about the supply of food, notably because of its impact on the nutritional status of so many millions.2 In 1984, John Mellor and Bruce Johnston reported on trends in production and indicated that Africa had the slowest food growth rates in comparison with other country groupings throughout the world. They also acknowledged the extent of malnutrition and the complex system of interactions which influence food production and consumption.3 Earlier reviews of the food-deficit problems called attention to environmental constraints and the variety of experimental strategies for agricultural development tried in Africa. Michael Lofchie and Stephen Commins concluded that fundamental changes in governmental policies are needed in order to facilitate peasant production and participation, and they suggested a balance between the retention of traditional agricultural systems and the introduction of modern agricultural practices.4 Carl Eicher emphasised the need for intensive investigation into production constraints in order to provide the knowledge base for better strategies and programmes, and among the research priorities identified were those related to food consumption and nutrition.5 However, although more national macro-level surveys are obviously needed, they alone will not help us to understand the relationships between household-based food production and consumption systems, nor the rôle of the family in allocating labour and food.

Global population may double by 2020 but the Malthusian specter of rapid population growth outracing slower increases in production will continue to be a false alarm. A vast array of agricultural technologies have the capacity to increase output 10-fold, perhaps as much as 100-fold. Discovery of a sweetener 54,000 times sweeter than sucrose (cane or beet sugar) indicates the magnitude of prodigious increases portended by new technologies. Productive agriculture, however, has become capital intense, limiting its availability in poorer nations. Increased production is the key to low prices and affordable supplies. In a world continuing to face starvation, there is no place for government policies purposely limiting supplies and artificially propping prices at high levels that place life-sustaining food beyond means of the poor. Affluence provides financial wherewithal to secure an adequate diet. Unfortunately, an estimated 25% of the world's population go hungry and face starvation. The specter of starvation may afflict as many as 600 million, and malnutrition, another 150 million by the year 2020. Improving self-sufficiency in these nations will remain a top humanitarian concern.

British Malaya before the Japanese occupation was heavily dependent on imported rice, producing on average only 35 per cent of its requirements between 1920 and 1940. During the 1930s, efforts were made to expand rice cultivation, but progress was slow and did not even keep pace with population growth: imports increased at the same rate as domestic production.As war approached, the government of Malaya built up a stockpile of rice and had about one year's supply in reserve when the occupation began. However, a considerable proportion of this grain was appropriated for military use and the civilian population soon faced food shortages.

Wide fluctuations in world prices of food-grains, especially
rice and wheat, in the seventies and the early eighties forced many
developing countries to strive for self-sufficiency in food-grain
production. Pakistan is among the countries where near self-sufficiency
was achieved in wheat in the early eighties. It also maintained its
status as a leading rice-exporting country. However, a continuously high
rate of population growth, a changing pattern of income distribution,
and a greater level of urbanisation have greatly influenced the demand
for food-grains. At the same time, additional factors like a sharp rise
in the cost of irrigation, a dramatic decline in the world price of
rice, a heavy debt burden, the lack of technology and human capital
development, and mismanagement in the distribution system have
contributed towards a slower growth of grain production as compared with
the levels achieved in the sixties and the eighties. This change in the
demand and supply situation with respect to food has necessitated the
need to re-evaluate the existing agricultural policies. Within demand
and supply constraints, the question is whether or not Pakistan can
attain selfsufficiency in wheat while at the same time maintaining its
status as a significant exporter of rice. In the immediate future, the
situation appears desperate, but in the long-run, when available
resources are adequately utilised and consistent policies are adopted,
there is hope and optimism. This study not only reviews the current food
situation in Pakistan but also develops alternative policy scenarios
which are consistent with the target of food security in
Pakistan.

A ministerial address on the importance of food security in the Southern Africa region. ; All ten SADCC countries are heavily dependent on agriculture. This sector provides not only national and household food security but is the major source of employment for the people of the region. It generates foreign exchange in the net agricultural exporting countries and achieves large import savings in the other countries. It is this dominant role of agriculture in the economy of the region which led the Heads of SADCC states to agree to develop regional action programmes for seven agricultural sub-sectors. It is the action programme dealing with food security, which is the responsibility of Zimbabwe, that is the focus for this Conference. The primary objective of this programme was initially to increase food production in order to improve nutritional levels of rapidly expanding populations. Cereal production has been increasing but at a slower rate than population growth. This means that, in spite of an increase in cereal imports into the region, there has been a decline in the per capita availability of cereals within the region as a whole. ; USAID (Southern Africa Regional Programme )

Like the short circuits in an overloaded electrical system, a rash of"systems overloads" in such essential fields as food and fertilizer supply are resulting from man's apparent inability to adapt his institutions rapidly enough to permit a continuation of the rapid increases in output of recent years. The food and fertilizer crises of the mid-1970s, while ac celerated by such short term factors as widespread drought and the recent unprecedented economic boom, are also very much the product of major, longer term, interacting trends. Growing demand has been outrunning traditional sources of supply for a number of essential commodities, including food, fertilizer and energy, at a time when most nations, including the United States, are becoming heavily dependent on each other for continued progress. World economic and political structures have been too slow in their response. Major disrup tions and higher inflation have been a consequence. A critical issue is whether resolution of the longer term scarcity situations needs to continue in the 1974 context of "winners" and "losers." This article examines how the United States in its role as global food manager contributed significantly through its actions in 1973 and much of 1974 to the crises of the mid-1970s which brought to the world double-digit inflation, massive recession, and innumerable premature deaths, and how the World Food Conference marked a sharp turn in United States—and world—policy toward seeking a positive-sum game approach to the food and fertilizer problems—an approach by which all principal parties might gain.

Stomach contents were studied for 289 live young crocodiles (Crocodylus porosus) less than 180 cm long, collected from coast, river and swamp of Arnhem Land, Melville Island and Grant Island, Northern Territory, Australia; the crocodiles were then released. Tables give orders and families and some generic and specific names for prey or carrion eaten and for 3 parasites on the crocodiles, for a dry and a wet season in 1975-76. Between crocodiles 50 to 120 cm long and those smaller or larger there was no significant difference in the proportion of crocodiles having eaten crabs, shrimps, fish or insects or with empty stomachs, but only the larger crocodiles ate mammals or birds. Frequency of different foods eaten differed significantly with type of habitat or with salinity. Weight of food or incidence of empty stomachs did not differ between seasons, habitats or salinities. Condition of the crocodiles was significantly poorer for those from freshwater swamps than for those from lower mangrove or flood plains, and highest for those from upper mangrove. Main foods in both seasons were crustaceans, mainly crabs of subfamily Sesarminae and shrimps of genus Macrobrachium. The only fish eaten regularly was Pseudogobius sp., a slow-moving fish found by the water's edge. Amphibians were not found in the stomach.

A very large segment of the population in India has not been
affected by the process of post-independence economic development.
According to one estimate, in 1983, around 300 million people, or 40
percent of the total population, were living below the poverty line,
while more than 100 million people were living in severe destitute
conditions. Infant mortality, which is an important indicator of
undernourishment, is more than three times the rate in Sri Lanka and
China. This is not a satisfactory state of affairs but it represents a
significant improvement over time. While population has increased from
355 million in 1949-50 to 775 million in 1985-86, foodgrain output has
almost tripled to 151 million tonnes during the same period. Most of the
other agricultural crops have followed a similar pattern of growth,
implying an increase in the per capita availability of
domestically-produced agricultural products over time. The main source
of agricultural growth since the Sixties has been the increasing use of
modern inputs, which have contributed to higher yields and to
multi-cropping patterns. However, while the green revolution diminished
poverty, it adversely affected the distribution of land, leading to the
concentration of resources in fertile areas and benefiting more the
richer farmers. Furthermore, the growth of population combined with slow
urbanization has increased the population pressure on land. The land-man
ratio has been declining over time and the increase in employment
opportunities outside agriculture, both in urban and rural areas, which
is vital for reducing poverty, has not been significant enough to alter
the employment pattern. This suggests that it would be impossible to
wipe out poverty in the foreseeable future by altering prices or raising
production alone, despite evidence that the price index and the
production of agricultural products have a direct influence on
poverty.

Although many theoretical developments have been achieved in recent years, the progress both in understanding and application of risk and reliability analysis in water resources and environmental engineering remains slow. One of the reasons seems to be the lack of training of engineers with phenomena of statistical nature, including optimum cost and benefit decisions under uncertainty. This book presents, in a unified and comprehensive framework, the various aspects of risk and reliability in bothwater quantity and quality problems. The topics covered include uncertainty analysis of water quantity and quality data, stochastic simulation of hydrosystems, decision theory under uncertaintyand case studies. Methods for risk analysis of extremes in hydrology, groundwater clean-up, river and coastal pollution as well as total risk management are presented

A decline in nutritional status is inferred from data on the height and weight of West Point cadets in the antebellum period. The decline was geographically widespread and affected farmers and blue-collar workers the most; middle-class cadets did not experience a decline in nutritional status until the Civil War. Nutritional status declined because meat output did not keep pace with population growth. Urbanization and the expansion of the industrial labor force increased the demand for food. However, the agricultural labor force grew at a slower pace, and productivity growth in food production was insufficient to redress the imbalance.

Intuition tells us that the scarcity of space on the earth's surface should be closely tied both to population growth and to economic growth. Population growth should make land more scarce by raising the demand for food and private space and by raising the supply of labor, a factor of production that must cooperate with land. Intuition says that economic growth should tend to do the same, all things considered. The demand for food, a prime land-using product, would be expanded little by a rise in per capita incomes, but the rent on land should be bid up somewhat by the growth of other inputs into production, such as skills and man-made equipment. Intuition also suggests that land scarity should in turn retard the growth of population and per capita incomes. If space, privacy, and food are expensive, children should seem relatively costly. At the same time, higher space rents should mean slower economic growth than would be experienced if man could manufacture extra land cheaply.

Agricultural growth in Pakistan over the past 3 decades has
been very impressive, averaging 3.3 percent annually over the period
1965-80, and accelerating to 4.3 percent per year over the period
1980-90. But as impressive as these numbers are, questions arise
regarding the success of the agricultural sector in terms of meeting
food and employment needs, the potential for continuing or increasing
growth rates in the future, the likely sources of future agricultural
growth, and the technologies, policies, and institutional arrangements
necessary to achieve that growth. The truth is that agriculture in
general, and food production in particular, have been working hard to
just to keep pace with other sectors and with the food needs of the
domestic population. Agriculture was the slowest growing sector in
Pakistan over the past 30 years, with general economic expansion moving
along at an average of 5.2 percent annually over the 1965-80 period, and
of 6.3 percent per year over the decade of the 1980s. In addition, in
spite of very . substantial production and productivity gains for most
major crops, the average index of food production per capita remained
constant over the 1980-90 period, while the total volume of cereal
imports nearly doubled to over 2,048,000 metric tons [World Development
Report (1992)].

The livestock subsector (LSS) has always been an important component of the Nigerian economy. Despite the importance of the sector, growth in livestock output has been slow. In the face of constraints posed by disease and ecological problems, government policies have not been totally successful in introducing or encouraging the development of basic technological and institutional changes necessary to exploit the potential that exists for an efficient growth of the LSS. The anatomy of these policies is the subject of this paper. It begins with a summary description of the LSS, including an analysis of trends in livestock distribution, production, trade and consumption. Throughout the paper attempts are made to examine the political economy of policy decisions in order to explain why certain policies are chosen when other alternatives appear to be available. A discussion of the lessons and suggestions for feasible policy changes in the futre concludes the paper.

The 1980s were noted for the escalation of the war on drugs. The dominant public perception was that drug use is a hideous evil that must be stopped, even at a great cost of public resources and personal liberties. Parents, politicians, and law enforcement officials rallied to battle drug use.2 Tremendous expenses and limited victories did not slow the war on drugs.'It cannot be disputed that drug abuse is widespread. More than seventy million Americans have experimented with illegal drugs, and twenty-three million currently use an illegal drug.4 The costs to society include drug-related crimes, accidents, lost productivity, increased health costs, and personal suffering.' Drug users' employers bear a large portion of the costs resulting from lost productivity, accidents, illnesses,and related expenses." Some employers have responded by requiring employees to be tested for drug use. The federal government, the Nation's largest employer, is leading the way in drug testing.8 Serious fourth amendment issues arise, however, when the government forces employees to submit to drug testing as a condition of employment. The typical urinalysis of a government employee constitutes a search without a warrant, probable cause, or individualized suspicion that a particular employee violated a law or even a workplace rule. Nevertheless, the United States Supreme Court in 1989 upheld government drug testing programs in National Treasury Employees Union v. Von Raab and Skinner v. Railway Labor Executives' Association.' These cases were among a flood of recent federal and state court decisions allowing mandatory testing of federal, state, and municipal employees and private employees in pervasively regulated industries. These rulings have led several commentators to note that a "drug exception" to the fourth amendment may be emerging.' Part II of this Note details the executive branch's efforts to per-form drug tests on its employees and on private employees in pervasively regulated industries. Part III traces the Supreme Court's ...

Electronic fetal monitoring (EFM) is an example of a medical technology that has been widely accepted since its introduction in the mid-1960s. However, review of the literature does not provide convincing evidence of EFM efficacy, and four recent, controlled, clinical trails show little if any benefit in terms of preventing death or long-term disability of the baby. Public and private policies have largely acted to encourage use of EFM, and none have acted to slow or prevent its spread. This need for mechanisms to assure the timely evaluation of new medical technologies before they are accepted as a medical practice has led to a new medical devices program in the Food and Drug Administration, consensus development groups at the National Institutes of Health, and congressional legislation to establish a new National Center for Health Care Technology.