OFFICIALS DISCUSS INCREASING AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AT SUMMIT IN JOHANNESBURG

JOHANNESBURG, Aug 27 (Hina) - A debate on increasing agricultural production as one of the way to reduce the number of hungry and extremely poor people in the world by half by 2015 started at the U.N. World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg on Tuesday. #L# According to U.N. data collected between 1997 and 1999, 1.2 billion people in the world live in extreme poverty with less than one US dollar per day, while 815 million people in the world are undernourished. Finding a way to increase agricultural production without causing damage to the environment is one of the crucial goals of the Earth Summit in Johannesburg. The other priority topics are health, water management, power industry and the preservation of bio-diversity. The first, ministerial part of the Earth Summit is also attended by a Croatian delegation comprising Environmental Protection Minister Bozo Kovacevic, Finance Minister Mato Crkvenac and Labour and Social Welfare Minister Davorko Vidovic. Croatian President Stjepan Mesic will participate in the of the Summit between September 1 and 4. (hina) it