Mr. EDMINSTER. We will be glad to answer any questions if members of the committee have any regarding this material either now or at some future time. Also, as we have done in the past, we have made available to the committee a brochure outlining some of the major issues and areas of research needs, research concerns and research accomplishments. We have tried to back this up with visual material and with a brief outline of information that can be used by the committee in decisionmaking or perhaps in their contacts with their home constituents. Again, in the interest of providing ample time to discuss the budget we can provide these visuals for the record and move on. However, if there are any questions on this material we will be glad to answer them either now or in the future. [The information follows:] INCREASING WORLD PROTEIN SUPPLY Problem: The World Food Conference highlighted the need to increase world food supplies, principally protein, to meet future demands. World population is projected to increase from 3.6 to 6.5 billion by the year 2000 with 5 billion people in the developing world. Discovery of new sources of protein, increased protein content of existing plants, and increased productivity of existing crops are needed to meet this challenge. Research Progress: Rapid progress is being made on extraction of high quality protein from alfalfa and other leaf sources. Excellent progress is being made in developing corn inbreds to produce hybrid varieties with high lysine. In soybeans and some other crops, higher protein levels have been identified. In barley and sorghum, there is a good probability that protein quality can be improved. For cottonseed, incorporation of gossypol-free germplasm into new varieties, long with the liquid cycline process, offers large volumes of high quality protein for human nutrition. Research Needs: Additional emphasis is needed to accelerate the ARS effort to increase protein production. For the oilseed crops-peanuts, soybeans, cottonseed, and sunflowers--the program would concentrate on amino acid variability, especially in methionine, germplasm accession and evaluation, and a breeding effort to develop varieties with improved protein quality. For the cereal crops--corn, sorghum, rice, wheat, oats, and barley--the programs would be directed to improve both protein quality and quantity. The potential of pearl millet and triticale should be exploited. Benefits: This increased effort would accelerate the development of cereal crop varieties with improved protein. The nutritional quality of these crops would be increased and more protein would be available to feed part of the increased population. Technology from this research could be used by developing countries to grow the developed varieties or to use the germplasm to develop varieties adapted to the specific country. Feed efficiency in livestock would be increased allowing the feeding of more livestock with the same amount of food. In countries that consume the grain directly, better quality protein would help reduce malnutrition. |