World Food Conference Rome November 1974

the predicament and difficulties in which the developing countries find themselves today are none of their making. They are the pro ducts of history. Centuries of colonial rule have distorted the pattern of their agriculture. Thus, they had perforce to concentrate on the production of crops which could provide the necessary raw material for the industries of the colonial powers. Cultivation of food crops was consequently left in the hands of subsistence farmers. Even the industrial raw materials