Food and Agriculture Organization

The seventeenth session of the Council of the Food and Agriculture Organization, which met in Rome from June 15 to 24, 1953, under the chairmanship of Josue de Castro, was concerned primarily with preparations for the seventh FAO Conference scheduled to convene on November 23. Colombia, the Netherlands, the Philippines and Spain attended the Council for the first time since their election to that body at the sixth FAO Conference. In considering the budget and work program which had been prepared by the Director-General for the seventh Conference, the Council agreed that the program for the next two years would, of necessity, consist principally of continuations of existing projects. The budgets proposed by the Director-General (Dodd) of $6,040,000 and $6,200,000 for 1954 and 1955, respectively, were larger than the approved budget of $5,250,000 for 1953; the Council pointed out, however, that a large part of the increase was necessitated by normal salary increments, allowance costs and similar expenses. In view of the opinions which had been expressed by several FAO members opposing any increase in the organization's budget and tending to favor stable or even smaller budgets for the next two years, the Council asked the Director-General to prepare a report for the Conference showing the program implications of a budget at the 1953 level and also at a level of $5,500,000. Concerning the expanded technical assistance program, the Council noted with some concern that the actual funds expected to be available for FAO's share of the 1954 program were likely to be about half of the $12 million originally budgeted for the program on a suggestion of the Technical Assistance Board.