Evening star., 1949-08-14
Brains Needed
TOFeedW World
Modern Methods and
Work the Answer
to Shortages
By Adeloide Kerr

NEW YORK.-Farms through
out the world need brains more
than money or mechanization.
This is the conclusion of Norris
E. Dodd, director general OF the
United Nations Food and Agricul-
tural Organization. who has just
returned from a global survey.
He says that the world can pro-
duce enough food to feed itself Il
it applies it's present learning tt
existing farms. He envisions
vast enlargement of the world:
food supply without the expendi'
ture OF, increasing millions Of
dofars.4 =
Mr.. Dodd declares that he ha.
scant patience with Government
officials who talk of agricultural
and other economic developments
in terms of hundreds Of millions
of dollars and vast mechanization
but have little or no contact with
farmers.
He visited farmers from China
to Poland to Egypt, watching
them plant grain by hand, cut 1t
with sickles, irrigate with camel
hide buckets and follow other
practices centuries old.
Half Go Hungry
He also checked the work OF
FAO-whose aim is to increase
and improve the worlds food sup
ply. It operates on $4,000, 900
budget.
More than half the people OF
the world go to bed hungry" MIR.
Dodd saio. "One of the main
reasons is backward agricultural
methods. In some parts Of India
for instance, where the rice ration
is only 9 ounces q day, people
wait for the July and August
floods to plant rice. They harvest
it by hand in January. And then
some of the richest land in the
world is allowed to lie unused
until the next July and August
when the land is flooded again,
In some parts Of the Near East
many farmers still irrigate by
hand with buckets.
I'm both places a little pump
which could be installed for not
more than $3.50, could make ii
possible to produce an extra crop
of food. Several thousand pumps
would make a tremendous differ
ence. In other places they take
everything from the land and put
nothing back, so the land grows
poorer and produces poorer crops.
The answer there is fertilizer and
crop rotation. In other places the
answer is a threshing machine or
a vaccine to fight animal disease.
whats needed is not vast
mechanization. but practical agri-
cultural methods, a lot of work
and a little money. During the
war the United States increased
It's food production 80 per cent
If we could bring about this in
crease in q country which uses
up-to-date agricultural methods,
imagine what the increase could
be in areas where they are still
plowing with a crooked stick. And
imagine further what could be
achieved by using land which is
not now cultivated, but could be. -
Along with farm development,
Mr.. Dodd sees development of
world fisheries as an important
source Of food.
He listed numerous cases where
food production had been bettered
by simple methods. In the Far
East, rinderpest slew many water
buffalo and oxen, without which
peasants cannot do their plant
ing. FAC developed a laboratory
at Marking that produced a vac
cine which immunized cattle for
life, and peasants drove their cat
tie and water buffalo miles to
have them vaccinated. Millions
were saveo.
"The loss OF grain by insects
and rodents every year is nearly as
great as the amount moved in
international trade" said Mr..
Dodd.
1.-The milk supply in most of
the world is filthy-not At to feed
human beings. FAC co-operated
with the u. N. international chill
dren's emergency fund in Europe
to set up plants to pasteurize fresh
milk and dry the rest"