The causes of the Bangladesh 1974 famine are essentially physical(TM) To what extent is this true?

The floods that occurred during the monsoon of 1974 also accelerated rural-urban migration. Occasional deaths due to starvation were reported as early as January 1974. However the floods were a physical factor that contributed to the famine but this was not the prime factor it was a human factor: the failure of the government that excelled the problem of the famine.  There were a few initiatives to open such as kitchen gruels to feed the starved people during the middle of the year, but political and administrative authorities did not encourage these initiatives until the end of September when the famine firmly gripped the nation. Three districts Rangpur, Mymensingh and Sylhet were affected severely. Although the floods were a physical factor it was the government not identifying the problem that made the situation worse.

A human factor that was a cause for famine was that the Bangladesh population experienced a drastic drop in their standard of living mainly due to major disruptions in economy and society caused by the war of liberation. The damage caused by the war was huge. According to the United Nations, Consequently, economic activity lagged behind the levels achieved in pre-war years. The downward spiral of real income and unemployment continued. The worst victims of this process were industrial workers, small peasants, agricultural labourers and low paid fixed-income earning groups. This was a factor because it was hard for these people to afford food with such low income also through aid it was hard to distribute food to smaller villages therefore making it hard for them to access food; they were some of the worst hit people.

The response of the government to the crisis was not enough. The response from international communities also fell extremely short of the need at that time. There was very less international aid than was expected this would have been a major help if international aid had arrived but this fell short exacerbating the issue further. The government's ability to procure food grain from abroad was limited by an acute foreign exchange shortage following the 1973 oil crisis, the unusual high price of rice in the international market, inability to obtain short-term credit, and non-cooperation of the international community. These are all human factors that causes the famine but these were hard to over come because these wee problems on a bigger scale that the Bangladesh government could not solve on there own.