The Causes and Effects of Famine in Developing Countries - Term Paper Example

Famine Famine is the condition of scar of food caused by failure in food production and distribution leading to death through starvation and other diseases. Famine is different from chronic hunger though both have the similar symptoms of poverty and lack of food (Cox, 1981). Famine is an extreme condition characterized by large-scale loss of life, social disruption, and an economic chaos that destroys production potential (Mellor and Gavian, 1987). For survival people need a basic diet of proteins, carbohydrates, fats and minerals to provide for the minimum requirement of 2500 calories a day. But people in famine struck areas are unable to fulfill this minimum requirement and succumb to death (Tufty, 1966a). Symptoms include migration, distress sales of land, livestock, and other productive assets, the division and impoverishment of societys poorest families, crime, and the disintegration of customary moral codes. The world has experienced a long history of famine. Since A.D. 10, the United Kingdom has suffered more than 180 famines. China had an average of 90 famines per 100 years between 106 B.C. and 1929. One of the most famous examples of famine was the Irish Potato famine of 1845 and 1846 (Cox, 1981). In the modern era more than 3 million people were perished in the great Bengal famine of 1943 and in 1974 another 1.5 million starved in Bangladesh. China again suffered from the worst famine of 20th century between 1959 and 1961. Africa was a sufferer of famine throughout the twentieth century killing millions of people. But the progress in the field of famine control is quite significant. It was also found that careful planning and management can block the chain of events that traditionally leads from crop failure to widespread death. Causes of Famine: The analysis of severe famines in the world was able to point out towards some of the underlying causes of famines. Famines occur generally due to crop failure caused by bad weather or civil disruption, or both. Price distortion and reduced employments occur as a result of crop failure. Government policies sometimes aggravate the situation. The poor food production due to bad weather or drought conditions or due to civil disruption can be dealt with if occurs for only one year. The farmers manage the situation themselves by depleting stock or borrowing food. But problem takes place when these situations persist for more than one year continuously. An African example can be cited in this regard where the Sahelian states suffered from famine in 1974 following eight years of crop failures due to poor weather. A combined effect of drought, floods, and civil war crippled Ethiopia, Sudan, and the Sahel in 1983 and 1984. Sometimes the production drop may be localized, and aggregate production may not fall in a famine year. The example of Bangladesh demonstrated this condition in 1974 and 1984 when flood destroyed rice crop in low lying areas but boosted production in upland regions. A serious problem is associated with this type of conditions when a region is defined broadly enough so that the surpluses can outweigh deficits, although any given locality may go hungry. As long as markets are fragmented by poor transport and government inhibitions to trade and income maintenance efforts fail, the production loss remains threatening (Mellor and Gavian, 1987). Changed weather condition leading to a significant shift in rain patterns can aggravate drought conditions severely affecting the sub-Saharan regions. Asia can also suffer from changed monsoon conditions. Population growth is another most significant cause of famine. Population growth is a result of revolutionary medical discoveries which removed and controlled some of the deadly diseases to lengthen the life span of human population and declined the child death rate, especially in the developing countries. World population showed a tremendous pace in growth since 1900. But the rate of food production could not keep the similar pace and was unable to feed the ever increasing population. The humankind started to show huge potential in food production since the middle of the twentieth century through the development of a number of farm machinery, irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides and research giving rise to new hybrid plants and animals. Preservation and storage techniques like dehydration, freezing, radiation, canning and other modern processes evolved in the developed countries to ensure year round food supply. But this progression in preservation and storage technique were not applied in a timely manner to keep up with the increasing population. The progress in food production techniques was significant but according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, only a few countries showed improvement in food production. The drought conditions in Australia, Africa and Asia hampered the production rate. Latin America though improved production, the rapid expansion of population of the region left the output per person basically unchanged (Tufty, 1966a). This forced the previously food exporting regions like India, Africa and South America to turn from exporters to importers increasing more pressure for food supply on the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Not only the food storage techniques but also the transportation methods cause severe depletion in food supply. The food shipments often lay unprotected for long time before being docked. The required vehicles also sometimes could not reach the destination on time and by the time the food supply reaches the destination it decreases to the half of the original amount (Tufty, 1966a). Reduction in food production affects the prices of food severely. The poor people suffer the most due to the extreme rise in price of food commodities as well as the decrease in the price of commodities they sell. The increased prices of food commodities make them out of reach for the poor families. As a result they reduce food consumption more than ten times as much as the wealthy in response to the same decline in supply, leading to the famine conditions. The rich people adjust with the increased price through the decrease in their consumption of luxury food items like meat or other high protein food which the poor generally sell to buy cheaper food grains. Not only the food items but also the non-food expenditures like clothes and other goods of daily use also suffer from decreased price due to the controls exercised by the rich in these sectors. This leads to further decline in income for the poor (Mellor and Gavian, 1987). Employment seriously suffers during the drought conditions, especially for the landless laborers. Less farming activities cause less employment in agricultural sector forcing laborers to shift to low productivity tasks like tending of livestock. Fall in demand of non-food products cause loss of employment in this sector also. It is often seen that labor intensities also change based on price disturbances. When shortage of a certain food grain leads to its increased cost the framers often shift from the less profitable and more labor intensive crops to the more costly crop production which demands less labor. This leads to further decrease in employment (Mellor and Gavian, 1987). The agricultural wage laborers and people in small-scale service trades in South Asia are particularly vulnerable because of the sensitivity of their wage rates to changes in the wider economy unlike Africa where much smaller proportion of people are involved in such employment. African casual and informal sector urban wage labor markets seem less volatile and immediately responsive to external shocks and production crises such as droughts (Swift, 2006). The United States produce half the worlds corn and two-thirds of its soybeans. Most of this increase was accomplished by raising productivity through mechanization and increased use of fertilizers. This has made agriculture more energy intensive and required roughly 80 gallons of gasoline directly to raise an acre of corn, with about twice that much energy involved in making the fertilizer and transporting and processing the various products off the farm. This increased dependence on mechanization decreased the requirement of labor by about 60 percent causing even more decrease in employment. This also required the developing countries to depend more on imported machinery, petroleum and fertilizers to grow crops. Their foreign exchange also depleted in order to import food directly instead of growing it at home (Douglas, 1974b). The surplus of crops grown as a result of increased productivity was initially left to rot as the consumption was not enough. The developing countries could not afford to pay American prices for the surpluses and a "Food for Peace" program was launched to sell the extra food for whatever commodities, local currency or political advantage could be traded in return for stabilization of price and nutrition in those countries. But the surpluses were also hit when with increased income people turned more to eating meat than grains directly. This led to seven times more consumption of grains as feed. The exports doubled and the surpluses became too valuable to give away (Douglas, 1974b). Famine redistributes income away from the poor and forces them to sell productive assets like livestock, tools, and land. The same assets need about triple the price to be reacquired after the famine. Redistribution of income and its concentration in the hands of rich cause even more rise in price of food making the poor more vulnerable to inflated price of food. Government policies often smoothens the path for famine. Poor policies and armed conflicts heighten a nations vulnerability to famine conditions. Technical mismanagement by the government officials often cause serious damage to the farmland through deep plowing, close planting, and water conservation errors. The response of governments towards war conditions also can cause food crisis. It includes drawing labor from food production, disrupting the marketing of agricultural inputs and crops, destroying fields, creating refugees, and hindering relief efforts. The example of war influenced famine was the Netherlands during World War II when about 10000 people had to starve due to a blockade in food import. Sometimes all the conditions of war, mismanagement and bad weather together cause the greatest of famines. The famines in the recent years were mainly found to be manmade rather than natural and absorbed more than three-quarters of the disaster assistance channeled through the World Food Program in 1982 (Mellor and Gavian, 1987). Sub-Saharan African region suffering from severe food shortage is an example of the poor government policies causing famine when combined with the natural disaster conditions. The government policies in these regions permit over cultivation and overgrazing ignoring the long term environmental disaster it may cause. The people in these regions are forced to indulge in such practices in order to survive. The social and political factors have weakened and impoverished these people (Raloff, 1985). The reservation of lands in Sahelian region for growing cash crops in order to pay debts resulted in decrease in food grain production. The irrigation facilities are also restricted for cash crops and the food grains depend on rain water. The food price is kept unusually low by the government to placate urban consumers. All these conditions together with huge population and concentration on westernized farming techniques not suitable for the region aggravated the famine condition in this region. Effects of Famine: The foremost effect of famine is starvation which causes weight loss, apathy, depression, cachexia, diarrhea, anorexia, immobility, and finally death. Anemia, ulcer and edema are also common among starved people. Loss of concentration and frustration are some of the common psychological effects of starvation. Decrease in immunity caused by starvation leads to death through pestilence. The social effects of famine initially show mutual cooperation but with increased severity and duration normal social behavior disappear leaving behind the struggle for personal survival. Riots, revolutions, insurrections and mass migration are quite common in this situation. Famine caused by civil strife and war may even result in cannibalism. The most common permanent effect of famine is chronic under-nutrition and stunting of adults due to childhood growth retardation reducing work capacity and productivity (Scrimshaw, 1987). Prevention and Relief: The world is now more capable of dealing with famine with the advancement in science and technology but food reserves need always be maintained for sudden food shortages. The countries like the United States which have the significant storage of food need to share their resources with the starving countries to deal with the situation. Apart from the political implications, the sophisticated understanding of basic human needs during a crisis is also required in order to deliver food according to need. Otherwise it often happens that the food items sent for relief purpose are often intolerable to the starving people causing them serious harm through dehydration and diarrhea (Douglas, 1974a). Government policies also play very important role in damage control. They need to develop an early warning system to deal with the famine conditions before the situation aggravates. The policymakers need to grow their network and coordinate with statistical analysts to get the overview of the situation. The local governments must have proper coordination with the central ones. With the system properly in place the conditions can be tackled at a smaller level and a disaster can be prevented. For example Maharashtra in India faced three consecutive years of bad weather followed by 18%, 29% and 54% of depletion in food production between 1971 and 1973, but with proper employment planning and conservation practices the country could avoid death caused by famine (Mellor and Gavian, 1987). The positive steps which can be taken to ward off famine can be stated as use of diminishing food surpluses to stop-gap hunger in critical areas, changing the U.S. domestic farm production so that more food is grown for world use, sending of hard-hitting U.S. experts to help other countries raise their own food and spreading of birth-control information and practice with utmost speed as the lag in reduction of the worlds population is even more difficult to remedy than the lag in food increase (Tufty, 1966b). In order to prevent famine, both the supply side and the demand side of the food equation must balance at a higher level through economic development and political stability. Agricultural sectors need also be developed while transforming from agrarian to industrialized society. Care should be taken to grow agricultural productivity to preserve sufficient amount of food for need. At the time of disaster, food stocks remain adequate in addition to enough livestock to be slaughtered. Foreign trade and finances can be adjusted, unemployment can be limited and price swings remain tolerable. Modern science is now able to take care of productivity. Science can provide high-yielding and drought resistant crop varieties to increase productivity. Increased agricultural research along with improved transportation, communication and administrative capacity are helpful in famine prevention (Mellor and Gavian, 1987). The governments in African countries adopted policy reform including higher agricultural prices, substitution of rural for urban bias, elimination of state-controlled marketing systems, and state and other types of large-scale farms. Population control, political stability, cooperative efforts, thoughtful use of foreign assistance and development of customized green revolution will be helpful to deal with famine in Africa though it will take a long time and perseverance (Mellor and Gavian, 1987). Laws and amendments were also framed in order to deal with famine in long term basis. The Famine Prevention and Freedom from Hunger Amendment was added to the International Development and Food Assistance Act of 1975 to involve US agricultural scientists from land – grant universities in the long term agricultural research and educational programs of developing countries. A Board for International Food and Agricultural Development with strong university representation was involved in planning and implementing the programs. The legislation offered the universities an opportunity to integrate international components into their agriculture, food, and nutrition programs and thereby hoped to improve agricultural conditions both in the US and abroad (Buddemeier, 1977; Guither, 1977). Equipped with all these efforts the world may be said to have prepared itself to confront the famine condition as it comes. References 1) Buddemeier, W.D., 1977. Famine prevention and freedom from hunger: Challenge and responsibility. Illinois Agricultural Economics, 17 (2), p. 13-16. 2) Cox, G.W., 1981. The Ecology of famine: An overview. In Robson, J.K. (Ed.) Famine: Its causes, effects and management, p. 5-18. London: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers. 3) Douglas, J.H., 1974a. Confronting famine. Science News, 105 (20), p. 322-323. 4) Douglas, J.H., 1974b. The omens of famine. Science News, 105 (19), p. 306-308. 5) Guither, H.D., 1977. The famine prevention and freedom from hunger amendment: Issues and compromises in the international development policymaking. Illinois Agricultural Economics, 17 (2), p. 7-12. 6) Mellor, J.W. and Gavian, S., 1987. Famine: Causes, prevention and relief. Science, new Series, 235 (4788), p. 539-545. 7) Raloff, J., 1985. Africa’s famine: The human dimension. Science News, 127 (19), p. 299-301. 8) Scrimshaw, N.S., 1987. The phenomenon of famine. Annual review Nutrition, 7, p. 1-21. 9) Swift, J., 2006. Why are rural people vulnerable to famine? IDS Bulletin, 37 (4), p. 41-49. 10) Tufty, B., 1966a. Analysis of famine. Science News, 90 (5), p. 74-75. 11) Tufty, B., 1966b. Famine menaces world. The Science News-Letter, 89 (7), p. 102. Read More