Abstract
IN his address, "Limiting Factors in World Development, or What is Possible", to the Associated Scientific and Technical Societies of South Africa at Johannesburg on August 11, 1948, Sir Harold Hartley suggested that a primary cause of our present troubles is the failure to realize that in the twentieth century with the exploitation of the virgin lands, the following down of the growth of population and the disappearance of 'easy money', a new technique is required to give a dynamic impulse to international trade and stimulate both production and purchasing power. The future depends on increasing both production and purchasing power, and Sir Harold then examined more particularly the limiting factors in agricultural production. Of these, water comes first, and he stressed the importance of irrigation, draining and soil conservation. Climate comes next, and here we have the problem how far science can overcome the handicap of temperature extremes by improved living conditions, diet and clothing. Soil presents a very intricate and difficult scientific problem ; but great advances are being made, although we are only now realizing the delicate balance in the top few inches of soil on which fertility depends. Next comes man-power and human skill, involving questions of education, physique and incentives if production is to be improved. Diseases and pests have been a major limiting factor ; but here we have immediate reason for optimism in recent discoveries and developments both for protecting the individual and for the eradication of carriers of disease and destruction of pests themselves.
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Limiting Factors in World Development. Nature 163, 476 (1949). https://doi.org/10.1038/163476a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/163476a0