Utilization of Agricultural Wastes — Some Global Considerations

Abstract

We are living in a World where the future comes sooner than it used to, and in a World where change is as inevitable as death and taxation. My lecture this evening therefore will not be devoted to post-harvest physiology or for that matter to the specific techniques for converting agricultural wastes to useful products. Instead I would like to make some guesses about the place of agriculture, worldwide, say in 20 years’ time — by the year 2001. No one really knows what sort of place the World will be in 20 years time. All we can do is guess. And the guesses have to be based on what is known today and on trends — and on the likely innovations which will occur as the result of the research which is underway today. So, what sort of world will it be in 20 years’ time?