ABSTRACT
Many Less Developed Countries have been suffering from chronic food shortages for a long time. Until recently it was generally thought that the cure for this ill would lie in increased agricultural production. As a result the world food output has in fact risen nearly a third in the past decade. This improvement was not equally distributed, but even the poorer nations gained at least a quarter. Alas, their rapid population expansion meant that nearly the entire increase in food production has gone to feed more mouths and not to improve nutrition (Falcon, 1974:4). This experience has dashed the pious hopes of effecting increased per capita consumption in the near future solely by improving agricultural output. Yet this necessarily remains an important thrust in the sphere of development.
