Announcement of Agricultural Mission to Colombia of March 24, 1955

INTERNATIONAL BANK FOR ,eRECONSTRucT10N AND DE\/ELOPMENT <WORLD BANK) 1818 H STREET, N.W., WASHINGTON 25, O.C. TELEPHONE: EXECUTIVE 3-6360 PRESS REIEA~\NO. )\ 391 FCR RELF.ASE A.M. Newspapers SUBJECT: Agricultural 1-l!seion $.o Mareh 24 1 1955 Colombia. The World Bank announced today that it is sending a mission to. Colombia in ?'Ssppnse to a request from the Government for advice in accelerating the country's development in the field of agriculture. The mission will undertake a general r~view or Colombia's agricUltural economy and will make recommendations f'or a long-range program or agricultural development. Particular study will be given to the allocation of resources • available for investment in agriculture. In its allocations to the various sectors., the mission will give consider~.ti'on to the relative importance of measures which might be undertaken and to timing them most effectively. , The mission will also r~ornmend oth-,er measures which would speed up the ./1. process of agricultural developm·ept. The~e .recommendations will r~late to such I matters as agricultural pric~s, produbtiQn costs .and credit polici~s; export and jleasures for ii1creased or mor~ efficient production of the ilJlport policies; 1 principal agricultural commodities; programs related to proc~ssing and marketing; ( '/ agric;:ultural r,;tsearcll1 extension and education,; water resources; and the organization of government activities in th;~ agr:i.oul~ural field. I Tr~3 mission will arrive in Bogota on March 2~ ~n,d·,'i,Till carry out its st~ies s;-?'1 /.~\ . in Colombia. for two and 6:tJ.,•halt to three months,· returni~g\hereafter to the 1 _<:( headquar~,ez-s of the Bank in Washington for the preparat,iQI(;Jof its report. The \.,. ,, ., prominent British agricultural mission chief will be Sir Herbert Stewart . • 1 • ., 2-· ' • administrator and adviser. There will be six other rriission members including nat-i:onals or Canada., Chile., Netherlands, union of South Africa, and the United States. One member has been made available to the mission from the start of the Food and Agriculture Organiza.tion of the United N~tions.· The mission members are: Sir Herbert Stewart (United Kingdom) - Chief of Mission Sir Herbert Stewart was a member of the Indian Agricultural Service from 1920 to 1946. Among his posts there were Director of Agriculture and Dean of the Faculty or Agriculture.., Punjab; Vice Chairman of the Imperial Council of Agricultural Research·; ;, and Agricultural Commissioner with the Government of India. Sine?~ 1946 ha has served in various advisory capacities including those or Agric~ltural Adviser to the British Middle East Office, Princ;pal Consultant on agr-iculture to the U.N. Economic Survey Mission for the Middle East,. and Agricultural Adviser to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees. Manuel Elgueta (Chile) - Adv.i.ser on Agricultural ·Production • Since 1947 1 Mr. Elgueta. has been on the staff of the Interaaerioan Institute or Agricultural Sciences., Costa Rica, and since 1951, Director of the Ins~itute•s ~outhern Zone in Montevideo. Earlier he was Director of the Experilllent Station, Chilean National Society of Agriculture, Director of the Department ot Plant Genetics and. Agronomy in the Chilean Ministry of A griculttre and in l94S and 19461 Acting Dir~ctor General or Agrj.culture11 George Garvy (United States) • Chief Economist Mr., Garvy has been on the staff ·of the Federal Reserve Ba11k of New York i1nce 1943 and now hol<;ls the post of S~ior Economist. He served on missions or the International Bank to ijicaragua in l9Sl and Panama in 1952. · Folkert Hellinp (Netherlands) ~ Advl ser on W~ter Resources Mr. Hellinga has been Professor or tand Improvement at the Agr,icultural Vniversity) Wageningen, Netherlands, since 1947. Previously he·served as Provincial Engineer and Inspector of Rural.Rehabilitation for the Netherlands GoVerrurJerit • • t. - 3- • • A. Luytjes (Netherlands) - Adviser on Agricultural Administration Since 1950, Mr. LllJrtjes has been Director of the Tropical Products Department or the Royal Tropical Institute at Amsterdam. From·1919 to 1948 he served in the Government or the Netherlands East Indies where he held, among other positions, the posts o:f Head of the Division of Agricultural Economics; Head of the Department of Agriculture; and Deputy Director of Economic Affairs., Maurice F. Perkins (Canada) - Agricultural Economist Mr. Perkins has served as an Agricultural Economist on the staff of the International Bank since 1947, and is currently with the Technical Operations Department. He has visited a number of counti-ies in South America. and Asia and has prepared varioU$ studies on the world prospects of principal agricultural. commodities. From 1943 to·1947 Mr. Perkins served with the British Government on t.he Board of Trade and t.he British ::?00d Mission. M. Yudelman (South Africa) - Economist and Assistant to Mission Chier Mr. Yudelman is a memb~ of the Agriculture Di\r:ision of' the Food and Agriculture Organ:i.zation of the United Nations. As a Technical Assistance Officer for that Division, he has worked on • experts' reporte relating to agricultui~ and more recently has been associated ·with the FAO program for sett;ing up agricult~al advisory services in member eount:·ies.