Lyndon B. Johnson

famine ranks among the proudest chapters in the history of international cooperation. But last year's effort-heartening as it was-was hasty and improvised. The world must organize its response to famine-both today and for the years ahead.

Third, this year's economic aid program makes agricultural development a primary objective.

The AID program which I will shortly send to the Congress, includes funds to finance imports of fertilizer, irrigation pumps, and other American equipment and know-how necessary to improve agriculture in the developing countries.

Fourth, I proposed and the Congress enacted far-reaching legislation which provides the strong foundation for the new Food for Freedom program.

The central theme of the program is selfhelp. The legislation authorized concessional sales of food to countries which prove their determination to expand their own food production.

IV.

All of us know where the real battle is fought. Whatever the efforts in world capitals, the real tale is told on the land. It is the man behind the mule-or the bullockor the water buffalo-who must be reached. Only his own government and his own people can reach him.

Thus, the most important progress of the past year has occurred in the developing countries themselves. And there is progress to report.

India-the largest consumer of food aid— perhaps provides the best example.

This has been a year of innovation in Indian agriculture. Agricultural development now has top priority in India's economic plan. Much remains to be done. But

the evidence is unmistakable. India has started on the right path. India has:

-Imposed a food rationing system to

make efficient use of existing supplies. -Streamlined its transportation system to

improve distribution.

-Increased prices paid to the farmer, thus providing new incentives to use fertilizer, improved seeds and other modern materials.

-Begun large-scale operations with new varieties of rice introduced from Taiwan and with large quantities of high-yielding wheat seed imported from Mexico. -Approved plans to increase public investment in agriculture by more than 100% during the new Five Year Plan. -Started to expand rural credit, improve water supply and accelerate the distribution of fertilizer to remote areas. -Stepped up family planning. -Negotiated an agreement for the first

of several externally financed fertilizer plants to expand India's supply of homeproduced fertilizers.

India is off to a good start. But it is only a start. As Indian officials have warned, hard work remains in reaching targets they have set and in improving cooperation among state governments. India's economic problems are enormous. But they can be solved.

What India has begun to do represents the growing realization in the developing world that long-term economic growth is dependent on growth in agriculture. Not every country has made an effort as great as India's. But in some countries, production has improved more rapidly.

Everywhere there is an air of change. No longer does industrial development alone attract the best minds and talents. Agriculture is now attracting the young and more enterprising economists, administrators, and entrepreneurs in the developing world.

This is the best measure of progress in the War on Hunger and the best assurance of

success.

V.

India's food problem requires a major commitment of our resources and those of other advanced countries. India's population is equal to that of 66 members of the United Nations.

Broad authority exists under our legisla tion for national action by Executive decision alone. But the issues presented here are of such moment, and on such a scale, as to make it important that we act together, as we do on other great issues, on the firm foundation. of a Joint Resolution of Congress.

I ask you to support the broad approach we have proposed to the international community as a basic strategy for the War on Hunger. That strategy rests on three essential principles:

1. Self help. The War on Hunger can be won only by the determined efforts of the developing nations themselves. International aid can help them. But it can only help if they pursue well-conceived and well-executed long-range plans of their own.

2. Multilateral participation. The assistance of the international community must be organized in a coalition of the advanced and the developing nations.

3. Comprehensive planning. The international community must develop a comprehensive plan to assist India to fulfill its program of achieving food sufficiency, not only during this year, but for the next few years as well.

Most of you are familiar with the events of the past year. Drought limited India's food grain production to 72 million tons in the 1965-66 crop year, compared with a record 88 million tons the previous year. A

massive international emergency program met the immediate crisis. But India had to use precious food reserves-that are thus not available to meet the shortages created by a second successive bad crop.

The weather since then has brought little relief. The general outlook is slightly improved, and over-all production may reach 79 million tons this year. But late last summer a severe drought hit heavily-populated areas in north-central India. Unless Indian production is supplemented by substantial imports-perhaps 10 million tons by present estimates for calendar 1967-more than 70 million people will experience near famine.

The Government of India has already taken internal measures to move grain from its more fortunate areas to the drought areas. Imports of 2.3 million tons of grain are now in the pipeline to meet India's needs for the first two or three months of 1967. India has purchased some 200,000 tons of this grain with her own scarce foreign exchange. Canada with 185,000 tons, Australia with 150,000 tons and the Soviet Union with 200,000 tons have already joined the United States. with its 1.6 million tons, in an impressive multilateral effort to help.

India's immediate problem-and the world's problem-is to fill the remaining gap. for the balance of this year.

Because these facts bear heavily on the extent of US food shipments, I have requested and received careful verification from our Ambassador in New Delhi, from the Secretary of Agriculture and from members of Congress, who have recently been. in India, including Senator McGee and Senator Moss.

I am particularly grateful to Representative Poage and Representative Dole and Senator Miller, who at my request made a special trip to India in December to assess the situation on the ground. Their careful and

We believe that a self-reinforcing process of improvement is under way in India, affecting both agricultural techniques and government administration. On the basis of that conviction, we can move forward to do our share under the Food for Freedom Program of 1966.

VII.

I believe these proposals are in our national interest. I believe that they reflect the deepest purposes of our national spirit.

I am asking the Congress, and the American people, to join with me in this effort and in an appeal to all the nations of the world that can help. I am asking the Congress to consider thoroughly my recommendations and to render its judgment. The Executive Branch, this Nation and other nations will give full attention to the contributions that Congressional debate may produce.

There are many legitimate claims on our resources. Some may question why we devote a substantial portion to a distant

country.

The history of this century is ample reply. We have never stood idly by while famine or pestilence raged among any part of the human family. America would cease to be America if we walked by on the other side when confronted by such catastrophe.

The great lesson of our time is the interdependence of man. My predecessors and I have recognized this fact. All that we and other nations have sought to accomplish in behalf of world peace and economic growth would be for naught if the advanced countries failed to help feed the hungry in their day of need.

The White House February 2, 1967

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

NOTE: For the President's statement upon signing a resolution providing additional emergency food for India, see Item 153.

34

The President's News Conference of
February 2, 1967

THE PRESIDENT. Good afternoon, ladies and
gentlemen.

CONSULAR CONVENTION WITH THE U.S.S.R.

[1.] I have been asked to give a statement about the consular convention that is pending before the United States Senate.

I should like to say very briefly that I hope the Senate will give its advice and consent to the proposed convention with the U.S.S.R. I feel very strongly that the ratification of this treaty is very much in our national interest. I feel this way for two principal

reasons:

First, we need this treaty to protect the 18,000 American citizens who each year travel from this country to the Soviet Union. The convention requires immediate notification to us whenever an American citizen is arrested in the Soviet Union. It insures our right to visit that citizen within 4 days, and as often thereafter as is desirable.

We think that we need these rights to help to protect American citizens. These are rights which the Soviet citizens already have who travel in this country, because they are guaranteed by our Constitution.

Second, the convention does not require the opening of consulates in this country or

ports regularly on progress and identifies areas for future concentration of energies.

Third: We must take prompt action to help India meet its emergency food needs. Our best present estimate is that India needs deliveries of 10 million tons of food grains this year or roughly $725 million worth of food. 2.3 million tons, worth roughly $185 million, are already in the pipeline from a number of countries, including our own. To keep food in the pipeline, I am making an immediate allocation of 2 million tons, worth nearly $150 million, to tide India over while the Congress acts.

I recommend that Congress approve a commitment to share fully in the international effort to meet India's remaining food grain deficit of 5.7 million tons-worth about $400 million. To that end, I recommend a U.S. allocation of an additional amount of food grain, not to exceed 3 million tons, provided it is appropriately matched by other countries. I recommend that approximately $190 million available to the Commodity Credit Corporation in calendar 1967 be used for this purpose. These funds, if allotted, will have to be replenished by appropriation in Fiscal 1968.

Fourth: I recommend your approval of an allocation of $25 million in food commodities for distribution by CARE and other American voluntary agencies, to assist the Government of India in an emergency feeding program in the drought areas of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh.

Fifth: We hope other donors will accelerate their exports of fertilizers to India. Unless the application of chemical fertilizers rises sharply in India, she will not be able to meet her food grain targets. Those fertilizer targets are ambitious, yet they must be met and if possible, exceeded. Marshalling more fertilizer imports is as im

portant to meeting India's emergency as gathering additional grain. India herself must take prompt steps to increase her fertilizer investment and production and improve its distribution.

Sixth: I propose for the longer run to continue encouraging U.S. private investors to participate in India's program to expand production of chemical fertilizers. We will urge other governments to encourage their own producers.

Seventh: We intend to pursue other initiatives in the broader context of world agricultural development:

-We shall continue to press for multilateral efforts in every international forum in which we participate, including the current negotiations to establish a food aid program as part of an International Cereals Arrangement. -We shall continue our policy of encouraging private capital and technology to join the War on Hunger. -We shall press for the creation of an investment guarantee fund by the OECD to encourage private investment in the agricultural industries of developing countries.

-We shall make available to food deficit nations the technology our scientists have now developed for producing fish protein concentrate.

-We shall look to the study by the President's Science Advisory Committee on the problems of food production to supply further and more definitive guidelines for near-term action and for long-range planning.

None of these steps can be as important as Indian resolve and Indian performance. The Indian Government is committed to a bold program of agricultural modernization. That program is the foundation for the entire international effort to help India.