Agricultural Development: Proceedings of a Conference Sponsored by the Rockefeller Foundation, Bellagio, Italy April 23-25, 1969 (Bellagio I)

Report of a meeting of sixteen heads and key decisionmakers of major national, international, and private development agencies who met in April 1969 at the invitation of the Rockefeller Foundation at Villa Serbelloni, the Foundation's conference center in Bellagio, Italy, to discuss the implications of recent improvements in agricultural productivity in a few developing countries, and programs to sustain and extend the agricultural revolution. No formal record was kept. This document consists of six preparatory papers, and a brief summary of the meeting prepared by Will M. Myers, vice president of the Rockefeller Foundation, and presented orally at the end of the conference.The six papers include two by FAO, on world needs and potentials in agricultural production, and the high-yielding varieties. Sterling Wortman, director of agricultural sciences at Rockefeller discussed the technological basis for intensified agriculture, and Lowell Hardin, program officer for agriculture at the Ford Foundation reviewed later-generation agricultural development problems. Stanley Please of the World Bank wrote about capital and income flows needed to sustain the agricultural revolution, and F. F. Hill, retired vice president of the Ford Foundation, considered priorities in agricultural development.The conference also reviewed the work of the four existing IARCs, CIMMYT, IRRI, CIAT and IITA, and their growing financial requirements. There was agreement that vigorous efforts to develop superior agricultural technology must continue.Two further meetings were planned at Bellagio. The first would involve the principal agricultural officers or the agencies represented, and the second, about a year later, those who participated in this first meeting and representatives of other appropriate agencies.