Poland lays plans to lift food output, ease debt

In an effort to become self-sufficient in food production and ease its large foreign debt, the Polish government plans to step up its annual grain production by 5 million tons a year, the official PAP news agency reported.

Poland's high foreign debt was caused partly by a need to import large quantities of grain fodder to offset a 28 percent increase in animal production during the past 10 years, accompanied by only an 11 percent increase in grain production, the agency said. The government hopes to raise grain production by increasing sowing acreage and decreasing the potatoe crop.