Then the consequences of the population’s increase will well be
known to you: all these people will also have to be housed, dressed and,
above all, to be fed. Up to 90 percent of this necessary increase in food
production will have to come from fields already under cultivation. The FAO
estimates that during the period 1995 to 1997 about 790 million people in
the developing world did not have enough to eat. The number has been falling
in recent years at an average of around 8 million people per year. If the pace
is not stepped up, there will still be 600 million people going hungry in
2015.
The majority of farmers active in the food crop sector of developing
countries are small-scale farmers who form part of the rural poor. The issue
of introducing agricultural systems and improved technologies is particularly
important for them since improved productivity provides not only more food
but also an income.