However, income growth rates have varied considerably between regions in recent years, with Sub-Saharan Africa and West Asia and North Africa struggling with negative growth rates while East Asia was experiencing annual growth rates exceeding 7 percent (World Bank 1997b). Unless significant and fundamental changes occur in many developing countries, disparities in income levels and growth rates both between and within countries are likely to persist, and poverty is likely to remain entrenched in South Asia and Latin America and to increase considerably in Sub-Saharan Africa. Currently, more than 1.3 billion people are poor, with incomer of one dollar a day or less per person, while another 2 billion people are only marginally better off (World Bank 1997a). Available food being not equally distributed to all, a large proportion of the region’s population is likely to have access to less food than needed. So the problem of hunger is likely to persist. Pinstrup-Andersen et al. (1997) citing IFPRI (1995) foresaw there will still be 167 million malnourished children in the world in 2010 and 150 million in 2020