on balance they suggest that trade is likely to become increasingly important as a supplement to domestic production in ensuring adequate food availability and as a source of export earnings and income as will be seen in the following section the global harvest initiative s gap report compares the growth in projected demand in each region with the growth in projected supply based on a continuation of current growth rates in agricultural total factor productivity it concludes that on this businessasusual scenario of the growth in total demand can be met by maintaining the current tfp growth rate leaving a significant gap to be met by imports in south and southeast asia the proportion is and in the middle east and north africa it is