The United Nations, Agriculture, and the World Economic Revolution

Gunnar Myrdal

American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 1965, vol. 47, issue 4, 889-899

Abstract: The long-held expectation that application of the technical knowledge of the developed countries in the underdeveloped countries would permit food production to increase faster than population is not being fulfilled. The use of technical knowledge to decrease the death rate in underdeveloped countries and to enable industrial nations to produce synthetic substitutes for imports from underdeveloped countries has more than offset its use to increase production in underdeveloped countries. Rather than adapting the present body of technical knowledge to conditions in the underdeveloped countries, we should encourage localized research directed specifically to the problems of these countries. Since the initial effects of industrialization in increasing the demand for labor are small, the new agricultural technology should be labor-intensive. The institutional reforms needed within the underdeveloped countries should foster the generation and adoption of such technology. Most of the needed increase in food production for the increasing population must take place in the underdeveloped countries. The critical mission of FAO to increase food production in these countries is seriously hampered by the political nature of the United Nations.

Date: 1965
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