§ 87. Sir C. Osborneasked the Minister of Overseas Development if he will place in the Library a copy of the projections recently produced by the Food and Agriculture Organisation on population, agricultural production, income per capita, etc., to the year 1965 in readiness for the 40th session of the Committee on Commodities; what contribution Her Majesty's Government made to these forecasts; to what extent Her Majesty's Government base their policy on them; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. GreenwoodYes; but these projections form only the first part of the total accumulation of data on which F.A.O.s Indicative World Plan will be based and the Plan will not be completed until 1968 at the earliest. The question of basing Her Majesty's Government's 17W policy on these tables does not therefore arise at present; but there have been frequent exchanges of information between economists of my Ministry and the staff of F.A.O. on the methods used in the projections.