§ 23. Mr. Barnesasked the Minister of Overseas Development what attention is being given by his department to problems of loss during storage of foodstuffs donated under the World Food Programme arrangements.
§ Mr. OramThe Tropical Products Centre, which is a department of the Tropical Products Institute, is the consultant to the Programme on the storage, transportation and handling of food. The Centre is training all the World Food Programme Project officers in ways of preventing the deterioriation of stored food ; it has completed a handbook on the subject for the World Food Programme and provides specialists to advise recipient and donor countries on their problems in this field.
§ Mr. BarnesSince it is such a tragedy that food which is so badly needed should be lost in this way, will my hon. Friend say what time will elapse before these losses can be prevented, and how many officers have so far been trained for this work?
§ Mr. OramThis is a continuing problem, and it is not easy to put a time scale to it. In reply to the latter part of my hon. Friend's question, in each of the years 1967 and 1968 there were 13 three courses, at which 24 officers were trained. In 1969, four courses will be given and 32 officers will receive the benefit of training.
§ Mr. BraineWhile I agree that it is difficult to put a time scale on this, is the hon. Gentleman aware that the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations recently estimated that because of pests, disease and weeds the world loses up to 48,000 million dollars worth of food every year? Does not he agree that research and technical assistance in this field can do more than anything else to ease the world food problem?
§ Mr. OramI certainly agree with the hon. Gentleman in attaching importance to this problem. As I have said, we are doing an important job and increasing our expert knowledge on this subject.