ABSTRACT
Any safety margin disappeared in Africa as growth in food production fell well below that of the population growth. Extension of food cultivation onto marginal land was the consequence with attendant increase in harvest variability and global food insecurity. A number of changes in international, monetary, and organizational relations have certainly impacted the market for American farm products while simultaneously the worst famine in Africa's history has caused thousands of deaths and has malnourished millions. It is true that all Third World countries are better learning to improve soil utilization and are forced to do more on their own because hard currency wants to buy on international markets. Cash for oil and other imports had to come from a waning base of raw materials. Even developing countries with oil reserves like Mexico found out that their raw material base alone could not make up for a missing industrial infrastructure.
