NEEDED POPULATION DATA FOR AGRICULTURAL AND RURAL ANALYSIS.

The ultimate significance of data on food and agriculture is realized only when such data are placed in conjunction with population data. The volume of production, the composition of agricultural output, and the transfers of products from one area or another are just so many statistics in a vacuum until they can be translated into measures of levels of adequacy and placed in relief against areas of surplus and areas of need. Statistics on production and exchange no doubt have meaning as business and commercial interests are concerned, but markets and prices do not accurately reflect the distribution of hunger and malnutrition. It is the aim of this paper to identify the needed population data in order to study the world's position with reference to food and agriculture.