In the foreword to the annual report on the state of food and agriculture, the Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization (Cardon) noted that 1953 had marked a turning point in the postwar food and agriculture situation. The growth of world production had caught up with the world growth of population, and during 1953/54 production had oontinued to expand. No essential change in this line of development was predicted for the crop year 1954/55. Two major problems, Dr. Cardon stated, confronted FAO: 1) how to reduce existing agricultural surpluses without imbalancing world trade in agricultural commodities, and 2) how to ensure continued agricultural expansion in selected products and countries so as to raise the level of world nutrition as a whole.