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leum by-products - in this case fer–
tilizers - in order to conserve
enough oil for domestic industry.
The United States has also cut
back on fertilizer exports. Edwin M.
Martin, an American food expert,
explains that "if crops are short be–
cause of a lack of fertilizer, normally
the less-developed nations could
turn to the United States. But our
own stocks are very Iow. Even if we
have a good harvest this year it will
not be easy."
The result of this largely oH–
produced problem, states India's
Agriculture Minister Rakhuddin Ali
Ahmed, is that his country could be
short sorne 600,000 tons of fertilizer
this year.
Domestic price increases, scat–
tered food shortages and an in-
fiation rate rising at a 24 percent
clip led to riots in sorne sections of
India
in
early
1974.
These may well
be the forerunner of more serious
disruptions as the energy crisis bites
severely into India.
India ls Not Alone
The problems of India serve as a
prime example of the_many diffi–
culties facing tbe Third Wo:§.:?–
that vast segment <tt=ln!ma nity
which contains(!W"o thirds of the
wOrfd's population.
)
- Tbe fact remains ' that there are
more than 80 countries, many of
them poorer than India, which have
weak financia) structures and have
staked their hopes for a better fu–
ture on imported oil and fertilizers.
India's eastern neighbor, Bangla-
desh, seems to be hopelessly en–
meshed in a state of grinding
poverty. Independence from Paki–
stan, won with great sacrifice in
1971 ,
has promised more than it has
delivered. With freak weather dis–
orders a continuous threat (a mon–
soon tidal wave killed 500,000 in
1972).
a farmer's life in Bangladesh
seems to consist ofsimply one catas–
trophe after another.
And now comes the petroleum–
fertilizer shortage. Government ex–
perts in Dacca have no answers as
yet asto how to increase the nation's
exports to pay for its petroleum
needs. Should they raise the prices
of its export items? Sucb a course
seems out of the question since
Bangladesh's major customers in the
industrialized world might not be
A DOUBLE DILEMMA
THREATENS
THE THIRD VVORLD