| Abstract |
The year 1976 marks the end of CIMMYT's first decade and the start of the second. Such a milestone justifies a look backward at what has happened to CI MMYT and its collaborators, and a look forward at the foreseeable future. In mid-1966-about the time CIMMYT was created- demographers counted world population at 3.3 billions. Sometime in 1975 the 4 billionth person was born, very likely in a developing country where much of the population growth is occurring. CIMMYT's first decade thus coincided with a 25 percent rise in world population and a 30 percent increase in developing countries. Population growth is expected to continue at about the same rate, at least for the next decade or two. World population will pass 5 billions in the mid-1980's and 6 billions before the mid-1990's. These facts tell us how many people will sit down at the dinner table each night. They provide CIMMYT with its marching orders. Three cereals on which we work-wheat, maize, barley-account for 60 percent of the world's cereal production, or half the total calories and half the total protein consumed in the developing countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. |
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