U.K.: GHANA AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER WARNS LONDON CONFERENCE OF THE SPECTRE OF WORLD STARVATION.

Record ID: 208532

  • Title: U.K.: GHANA AGRICULTURE COMMISSIONER WARNS LONDON CONFERENCE OF THE SPECTRE OF WORLD STARVATION.
  • Date: 3rd May 1974
  • Summary: 1. GV Grosvenor House 0.05 2. CU Conference sign 0.06 3. SV INT Audience at conference 0.08 4. LV Colonel Bernasko walks to rostrum 0.08 5. SCU Colonel Bernasko speaks 3.23 COLONEL BERNASKO: "The Third World has in recent years come to recognise the importance of agriculture to its economic and social development, and has accordingly given it a place of priority in development programmes. The need to expand food production to meet domestic demands and the necessity not only to maintain exports but to increase them to earn more to provide financially for imported essential commodities have contributed to this welcome change of attitude towards agriculture. "The Third World is annually turning out middle school leavers in their thousands. Many developing countries, and indeed the whole world, are facing problems of unemployment at various intensities. The size of the problem is clearly indicated by the following statement which is taken from the Report of the African Regional Seminar on National Youth Service Programmes which took place in Addis Ababa in 1970: "'By 1980 it is estimated that the number of young people in the world leaving schools, seeking admission to further education, and/or looking for jobs will have gone up by an additional 180 million. Again it is in the developing countries that the major part of the increase will have to be faced." "Mr. Chairman, this is a pretty grim picture and the question is what will the world do about these unemployed. These will be hungry, angry, discontented people. How will they be accommodated. This is a global problem and needs a global solution. "Perhaps it may be difficult for most men and women living in comparative prosperity in the Western World who are daily warned of the dangers of over-eating to realise the plight of multitudes of people only a few flying hours away who cannot afford to buy that extra loaf of bread or few grains of rice that would satisfy their hunger. The spectre of world starvation haunts us." Initials BB/2042 RS/PN/BB/2048 Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 18th May 1974 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: LONDON, U.K.
  • City:
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Reuters ID: LVADO4MB44M082BFFXMK2HV7U387
  • Story Text: The Ghana Commissioner for Agriculture Colonel Frank George Bernasko told a London Conference on world food supplies on Thursday (2 May) that mankind was haunted by the spectre of world starvation.

    Colonel Bernasko told delegates that by 1980 the number of young people leaving the schools of the world could have gone up by an additional 180-million.

    "These will be hungry, angry, discontented people. This is a global problem and needs a global solution", he said.

    The previous day Dr. A.H. Boerma, Director General of the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation told the conference, organised by the Financial Times newspaper and British Airways, that by the middle of the year food stocks will probably equal only three weeks world consumption. it was essential for developing countries to increase their own production and be in a position to hole reserve stocks.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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