The more developed regions of the world will enter the new millenium with a stationary population,
and may face the problem of declining internal demand for food and disposal of surplus. But the
population explosion is still continuing in the less developed regions, particularly in countries where
poverty and hunger are widespread. These countries are equipped with only limited financial ability
to procure food from the world market. Demographers project that the population of the less developed
regions will increase by another 2.2 billion within the next three decades. Two-thirds of this additional
number will be located in Africa and South Asia. The national agricultural research systems
and the international agricultural research centers will thus continue to face the problem of how to
support increasing food supply for the rapidly growing population, while releasing resources for the
growing nonfarm sectors of the economy.