http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom/news/2002/7833-en.html 

The developing countries will become increasingly dependent on cereal, meat and milk imports, their production will not keep pace with demand. By 2030 they could be producing only 86 percent of their own cereal needs, with net imports rising from currently 103 million tonnes to 265 million tonnes by 2030. Traditional grain exporters such as the US, the EU, Canada, Australia and Argentina, and the transition countries as emerging exporters, are expected to produce the surpluses needed to fill this gap. "If real food prices do not rise, and exports of industry products and services grow as previously, then most countries will be able to afford to import cereals to meet their needs. However, the poorest countries tend to be the least able to pay for imports." In order to make such previsions with so precise figures one needs to base oneself on working a working assumption. .What is the working assumption used by the experts of the FAO?

It’s easy: the assumption is that the present rules of international trade will not change. Yet, it is clear for all to see that these rules are weighted in favour of the rich nations, who each day grow richer, and to the detriment of the developing nations which each day descend further into poverty.

Why are the developing countries unable to produce their own food; something they were able to do 50 years ago?  Because the existing rules of international trade discourage the producers of these countries.  It is just as we saw two weeks ago with the trade in rice:  (see : www.abcburkina.net/english/eng_vu_vu/vu_46.htm ).
But it is the same for wheat and corn… which are also heavily subsidised.

Worse still: the FAO experts seem to accept the unacceptable when they write :

"However, the poorest countries are generally the least able to pay for imports."

We need to understand that the rich countries continue to dump their excess of corn, rice and wheat in the form of food aid. For them it is the price to be paid, and cheap at that, so that the food industry continues to develop throughout the world in their favour. Evidently this discourages daily the producers of the developing nations.  I only need to give one example.

In January of 1998 I was working in the area of Houndé. At the time the farmers told me that their greatest difficulty was their inability to sell their corn at a profit. However, at the same time some American NGOs were dumping the excess of American produced corn in the form of food aid.