New York Times: World's Poor Pay Price as Crop Research Is Cut
The budgets of institutions that delivered the world from famine in the 1970s, including the rice institute, have stagnated or fallen, even as the problems they were trying to solve became harder. at the International Rice Research Institute, greenhouses have peeling paint and holes in their screens and walls. Hallways are dotted with empty offices. In the 1980s, the institute employed five entomologists, or insect experts, overseeing a staff of 200. Now it has one entomologist with a staff of eight. Similar troubles plague other centers in Asia, Africa and Latin America that work on crop productivity in poor countries. Agricultural experts have complained about the flagging efforts for years and warned of the risks. "Nobody was listening," said Thomas Lumpkin, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico.
at the International Rice Research Institute, greenhouses have peeling paint and holes in their screens and walls. Hallways are dotted with empty offices. In the 1980s, the institute employed five entomologists, or insect experts, overseeing a staff of 200. Now it has one entomologist with a staff of eight.
Similar troubles plague other centers in Asia, Africa and Latin America that work on crop productivity in poor countries. Agricultural experts have complained about the flagging efforts for years and warned of the risks.
"Nobody was listening," said Thomas Lumpkin, director general of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico.
This is stunning - if true:
In Africa, where yields have remained stagnant since the 1960s, efforts to bolster them have been hampered by cuts not only in research but also in programs like fertilizer distribution.
Not sure I believe it. Pretty much the Green Revolution© increased yields (total food production per acre/hectare) across the board. If the meaning is food/population then I can see it.
Of course dipstick doesn't bother to state what metric is being used. I expect nothing less of the NYT. A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run
Or there are just too many civil wars in Africa. In the long run, we're all dead. John Maynard Keynes
T. S. Payne at the FAO wrote:
Losses of wheat due to inadequate storage and other post-harvest factors at the farm, village and commercial levels of up to 4 percent have been observed (McFarlane, 1989; Abdullahi and Haile, 1991), though losses in excess of 40 percent for other cereals are not uncommon (NRC, 1996).
[References are to the bibliography at the end of the quoted article.] A doo run-run-run, a doo run-run
If it's cereals, that's possibly cos countries like ethiopia and Egypt have re-directed production from basic food to cash crops like strawberries and cotton for export. keep to the Fen Causeway
