This year the joint FAO/IAEA Division of Atomic Energy in Food and Agriculture celebrates its 10th anniversary. The aim of these two United Nations organizations is to ensure that the technical services of both FAO and IAEA are fully co-ordinated and their programmes are designed to assist developing Member States to apply isotopes and radiation techniques to the solution of food and agricultural problems. More precisely, the medium-term objectives of the Joint Division are to exploit the potential of nuclear techniques in research and development for increasing and stabilizing agricultural production, improving food quality, protecting agricultural products from spoilage and losses and minimizing pollution of food and the agricultural environment. This account of what radioisotopes can do for man in the agricultural field is therefore to a great extent a review of the activities of the Joint Division and a prediction of its future fields of emphasis, especially in the light of the present long-range and world-wide food crisis.
