The Causes and Effects of Famine in Developing Countries - Coursework Example

Table of Contents I. Introduction……………………………………………………………………….. 2 II. Causes and Consequences of Famine…………………………………………… 3 a. Natural Calamities………………………………………………………… 3 b. Access to Land…………………………………………………………….. 4 e. Conflict…………………………………………………………………........ 5 f. Exchange Rate Failures…………………………………………………….. 5 III. The Geography of Famine………………………………………………………… 7 IV. Observable Consequences of Famine……………………………………………… 8 VI. Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………… 8 VII. Works Cited………………………………………………………………………… 11 Introduction Everything happens for a reason. For a global crisis, which is famine, this saying is fairly accurate. Yet, famine happens not only for a reason but for complex reasons. Aside from its characteristically intricate origins, the consequences of famine are also multifaceted. Likewise, the definition of the term “famine” is not that easy to grasp as it may seem. The common perception of famine is a condition in which there is an extremely scarce supply of food. Consequently, because of inadequate food availability and consumption, there is also an abrupt decline in the level of food consumption of a particular large population. Starvation proceeds then because people are continuously subsisting without sufficient food supply and this condition worsens when famine is under sway; similarly, mortality rate is high due to unprecedented incidences of starvation. However, famine is not only attributable to an extreme and prolonged shortage of food but it also underlines economic, political and social trends that can transpire when food supplies are adequate to avert its emergence. Nevertheless, the causes of famine are insignificant when put adjacent to the effects of it such as anguish, emaciation and fatalities from a combination of starvation and contagious disease. Unfortunately, famine normally inflicts the vulnerable portion of a population, the children and the elderly (Scrimshaw, 1987, 1). Historically, the great starvation experienced by Ireland in the nineteenth century and the famine of Bengal in the 1940s have been blamed more on British political resolutions to export domestically produced grain without taking into consideration the possible production shortfalls that will occur. Even when production deficit is the primary cause of inadequate supply, the ecological and political grounds for production predicaments fluctuate extensively. They vary from natural calamities such as drought, flood, or pestilence to political debacles such as civil strife, to inappropriate economic policies such as price management, which largely contribute to the decline of the production of indispensable foods. Nevertheless, in all the sources of famine or food shortage, many within the affected region are starving; yet, in every food-short area, there are still a few numbers of people who benefit from sufficient access to food. Likewise, even though many are food protected in regions of plenty food availability, there are still incidences of chronic starvation (Derose et al 1998, p. 53). Causes of Famine People from different organizations, aid agencies and those that actually experience the affliction of famine have varying opinions about the roots of food crisis. The comparative nature of the concept of famine, its theoretical and actual aspects, is in conflict especially when analyzed between the perspective of those who are food secure and those who endure a continual cycle of food scarcity. Furthermore, the division of world countries into two categories, namely, the industrialized and developed countries and the impoverished and developing countries makes it more difficult to ascertain the precise determinant of famine since the condition of food calamity in these two dissimilar nations are widely varied and erratic (Fitzgibbon and Hennessy 2003). According to popular belief, third world countries or developing nations are more prone to suffer from famine and starvation because they do not have adequate wealth and resources to keep their people satisfactorily fed and in good physical shape. However, this explanation of famine is overly simplistic to the contemporary perspective. Natural Calamities The most primary and abrupt cause of famine is distinguished, natural calamities and disasters such as hostile weather, disease and pestilence, floods and earthquakes. Harsh weather is commonly recorded as the most frequent cause of famine. Industrialized and developing countries such as “China, central Asia, Indian region, Middle East, much of Africa, the Mediterranean Littoral, and portions of South and Central America” are arid and semi-arid regions of the earth and which are dramatically affected during protracted droughts that causes major crop failures. On the other hand, downpour or too much rain will bring about destructive floods that could also destroy food crops and set off famine. In cold regions, commonly situated at higher latitudes, incremental, damp and short growing seasons have generated food crop breakdown (Cox 1981). Aside from unfavorable weather, disease can also greatly damage crop systems, domestic animals and even humans which can trigger famine. The affliction of domestic animals with diseases in historical accounts also resulted in the death of many pastoralists. For instance, the introduction of the European cattle to East Africa negatively induced a new disease to the region in the late 1800s. The Masai, in the 1890s were decimated when a famine struck their area because of a disease produced by the rinderpest epizootics which killed game herds and cattle herds (Talbot 1972 as cited in Cox 1981). Access to Land In all cultures, individuals, families and communities have their own methods of earning their sources of survival or livelihood. Livelihood ranges from waged occupation to self-managed ventures and to subsistence farming. If people’s way of subsistence is permitted to continue without external interventions, individuals, families or communities will have adequate access to food for survival at the minimum level. For instance, in regions where agricultural work is the primary source of livelihood, the capability of an individual to produce harvest for his/her own consumption will decide whether he/she will have as much as necessary food or not. On the contrary, in waged employment, food security is quite unstable because oftentimes the compensation is not commensurate to the nutritional needs of the workers. Thus, a person’s capacity to have access to land is a significant factor in determining the extent of food security that one can obtain (Ghosh 1984, p. 291). However, famine still becomes a progressive cycle for many countries, particularly in the formerly occupied, because of inequality in the allocation and distribution of opportunities for access to land. Conflict Fighting or warring that occurs within a specified location is termed to as conflict. The incident of conflict such as local, provincial and international hostility have definite unsettling effects on the production of food and also on trade. Markets evaporate instantaneously. Harvest are pilfered and destroyed. Food supply is ransacked. Many people are murdered, abducted and enslaved. These events will have an absolute impact on the capability of a community to carry on feeding itself. Furthermore, conflict will frequently usher in migrations or movement of people. Consequently, this can create a group of people called internally displaced people or people who are compelled to transfer their homes but reside in their own country. It can also generate refugees or people who are forced to depart from their own country because of the hazardous conditions that they confront there. Accordingly, this movement will cause pressure to the regions they relocated to (Derose et al 1998, p. 86). If a significant movement of people to a territory that has a minimal degree of food production and which is hardly sufficient for the food needs of the original settlers, the already moderately scarce supply of food in the area will be aggravated because of the arrival of new settlers. Exchange Rate Failures Amartya Sen, in his book “Poverty and Famines” (1981), contested that famines are not exclusive to countries which are experiencing food production failures but also to nations which do not confront extreme scarcity of food supply and availability. He recognized the contribution of shortfall in the exchange or market mechanisms as a primary cause of famine among impoverished people. Sen maintained that the worth of deprived people’s production movement or assets such as their manual labor, cash crops, or animals is predisposed to disintegrate in relation to the fluctuations of staple food prices. If this phenomenon occurs, poor people will have nothing to eat not because of food shortage but because of their incapacity to buy food. The needed calories of each individual under wage labor are not met because of the low value of their animals, cash crops and labor in relation to food prices. This exchange rate failure as Sen calls it, is one of the most important factors that set off famine in the developing countries of Africa and Asia (Swift 2006, p. 42). Sen definitely indicates in his analysis that famine is generally a dilemma of food distribution and poverty rather than a total food insufficiency. The Geography of Famine The prevalence of food shortage in areas of abundant resources is the greatest moral contradiction of the modern age. Almost 800 million people in the developing countries are persistently undernourished. No less than 2 billion put up with vitamin and mineral deficiencies. However, from the mid-1970s the planet has generated adequate food to grant every human with a plainly adequate diet (Cohen and Reeves 1995, para 1). The proceeding graph illustrates the percentage of population undernourished in the four continents, namely, Asia-Pacific, Africa, Latin America and Middle East, from 1970 to 1990. (Cohen and Reeves 1995) As the graph shows, the number of famished people in developing countries decline from 942 million in 1970 to 786 million in 1990 and from 36 percent to 20 percent of the population. In Africa, apparently, is the concentration of much impoverishment and food insecurity. However, the leading continent in terms of the number of undernourished people resides in the Asia-Pacific region. The three continents, Asia-Pacific, Africa and Latin America, are consistently confronted with the problem of famine since time immemorial. Yet, in the present day, the causes of food shortages in these continents are not only attributable to natural calamities or environmental circumstances but on the increasing rate of poverty incidences, economic decline, imbalanced trading activities, unprecedented population growth, internal and external conflicts and governmental letdown. In one of the richest nations in the world, the United States, the allocation of the population dealing with starvation increased from 8 percent in 1985 to 12 percent in 1990. Yet, famine in industrialized nations is neither serious nor pervasive as compared to the developing countries (Cohen and Reeves 1995, para 2). Observable Consequences of Famine The unpleasant consequences of famine are widespread because these include physical, psychological, social and economic problems. Malnutrition results from food shortage within a short period of time. Both the children and the elderly fall short in growing, learning and suffer from excessive weight loss, lack of energy and diminished work capacity. Moreover, lack of Vitamin A because of famine, can result in permanent blindness that go together with worsening of nutritional quality. Undernourishment also positions people at an increased risk of dying from ordinary contagious illnesses. Diseases such as malaria, diarrhea, measles and pneumonia are the most frequent causes of fatality during famine. Negative psychological effects of famine are manifested in one’s fear and alarm of the uncertainty of having sufficient supply of food to consume or to feed one’s family. On the other hand, in terms of social impact, migration is a commonplace episode during stages of famine and relocating to other regions or in refugee camps disturbs social relationships and stratifications. Moreover, inadequate food creates disorder as individuals begin to resort to hopeless measures such as stealing just to eat, or the renewal of old conflicts because of the reality that some groups have whereas others do not have anything. Losing land ownership and giving away of priceless assets for a price such as domestic animals, ornaments or other commodities and goods can put off families from recuperating financially after a famine. Conclusion Famine or food shortage in developing countries is a rather diverse subject matter because its causes and consequences are incoherent even within a specified territory or region. Nevertheless, famine has it own superstructure as directly observable both in the industrialized and the poor nations. It has stages that determine the progression, the extent of the damage to the individual and the societal level, and the viable preventive measure to be implemented in a particular nation. It is probable that the modern contradiction of famine which states that food shortage is recurrent in regions that are abundant with natural resources and food production can be explained by evolution of famine, from natural calamities in impoverished countries to economic and political underpinnings in highly developed countries. The Superstructure of Famine In this diagram, the hierarchical structure of famine is illustrated. The base which forms the largest portion of the pyramid explains that in less developed countries, which is higher in number than the number of advanced nations, are more prone to natural calamities and disasters that will trigger famine because of their inefficient emergency procurement system or the managing of losses after a crisis so as to recover from a detrimental position. It is understandable if less developed countries have incompetent technical approach in brazening out with the aftermath of a damaging crisis such as famine. When a less developed country is able to recuperate from heavy losses due to famine, the decimated population will start to grow and the confidence towards the ability of the country to recover successfully will boost. The less developed country then will instigate efforts to improve its technology, physical and human capital to attain the progress it desires. The economy then will improve and the previously relegated poor country will be now placed at the category of developed nations. Yet, the threat of famine is still there. As the country advances and becomes more progressive, the population will increase to an exceptional level which will again trigger another episode of famine. In this case, this catastrophic event is not naturally induced but man-made. The government, in order to alleviate the country from the problem of overpopulation, will implement strategies that would successfully bring about their objective. Famine is one of those strategies. The administrative system could stage civil strife and conflict to show to the people that the country is no longer safe and that their basic need which is food is extremely on jeopardy. Hence, death and migration due to a man-made famine will do the job. Lastly, at the top of the pyramid rests the few industrialized countries which have efficient food production system yet consistently fail to feed all of its members. The victory of a nation in climbing the ladder to economic progress is not at all accompanied with all the good things in life because even in wealthy countries famine could occur in a significant level. If food production level is efficient yet there are still incidences of starvation because of food shortage, the exchange rate failure phenomenon can explain this contradiction. It simply states that the wage of the workers is not commensurate to their nutritional and dietary needs. Thus, even though there is food surplus, people who are earning less than the amount of the essential things that they need will be unable to buy food which then is a symptom of famine. Famine is truly a multifaceted problem, both locally and internationally. Nevertheless, the prevention of it lies on the ability of various agencies and organizations to actually research and understand the real life experiences of famine survivors because a well-proven perspective is more powerful than a theoretically dominated one. Works Cited 1.) Cohen, M. and Reeves, D. 1995, Causes of Hunger, Vision Brief. http://www.ifpri.org/2020/briefs/number19.htm 2.) Cox, G.W. 1981, The Ecology of Famine: An Overview, In Robson, J.K. (ed.) Famine: Its Causes, Effects and Management, Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, London. 3.) Derose, L., Messer, E., and Millman, S. 1998, Who’s Hungry?, United Nations University Press, New York. 4.) Fitzgibbon, M. and Hennessy, N. 2003, Roots of Famine, The International Famine Centre, University College, Cork. http://www.ucc.ie/famine/roots/pdfs/Roots%20of%20Famine2.pdf 5.) Food and Agriculture Organization. Trade Yearbook, 1968 and 1974 ( Rome, 1969 and 1975). 6.) Ghosh, P. 1984, Health, Food and Nutrition in Third World Development, Greenwood Press, Westport, CT. 7.) Scrimshaw, N. 1987, The Phenomenon of Famine, Annual Reviews Inc., Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge. 8.) Sen, A. 1981, Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation, Clarendon Press, Oxford. 10.) Swift, J. 2006, Why are Rural People Vulnerable to Famine, IDS Bulletin, Institute of Development Studies. 11.) Talbot, L.M. 1972, Ecological Consequences of Rangeland Development in Masailand, East Africa, In M.T. Farvar and J.P. Milton (eds), The Careless Technology, Natural History Press, Garden City, NY. 12.) Timmer, P. 1991, Agriculture and the State: Growth, Employment and Poverty in Developing Countries, Cornell University Press, Ithaca, NY. Read More