ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the present world food situation and its for-seeable trends, with special reference to Latin America. It shows some of the possible applications of climatic data and information to problems of agricultural development and production, and provides information on specific methodologies developed by the food and agriculture organization of the United Nations for the assessment of land use potential for agriculture, for the agrometeorological monitoring of crops for yield forecasts, and for the storage and retrieval of agrometeorological data. Many agricultural development projects have been undertaken with insufficient knowledge of the climatic characteristics of the region, resulting in disastrous failures often associated with soil degradation that leads to irreversible loss of cultivable areas. Plant growth favorable to locust swarming is often triggered by scant rainfall over impermeable soils, which causes the runoff to collect in low areas. When such favorable conditions occur, the locust population multiplies rapidly and swarms are formed.
