A Closer Look at a Natural Cause of Famine
There are several natural processes which can cause famine but the most predominant cause with the biggest impact (as can be seen in figure 3) is Drought. The main reason for this is that drought can cause many different problems which can have long term effects.
Figure 5. Drought
Case Study of Drought
The 1991-92 drought in Zambia
Background
Zambia, in Southern Africa has a large manufacturing and mining sector based mainly on copper exports. 58% of the population of Zambia live in rural areas and in the 1980’s the through rural population growth, the population grew by a million.
At this time the country was ruled by Kenneth Kaunda, as a single-party republic. His government had used money from export earning to support industrialisation and growth of maize as a basic food source and export crop. Due to the maize subsidies the country was almost self-sufficient in maize production.
However due to the position of Zambia in southern Africa the countries maize production is constantly under threat from droughts, as in 1982-84, ’89 and ’90.
The 1991-92 droughts (figure7) came at a time of political and economic changes with a change of government in October 1991.
The Drought and it’s Impacts: Figure 6
The case study above gives a perfect example of how much a drought can affect a country the people in it, but with good management from the government, a famine which would have been caused due to this physical process can be avoided, even in less developed countries. This case study compared to the aforementioned Ethiopia famine which was a drought but due to bad management by Emperor Haile Selassie it tuned into a famine killing 100,000. Zambia could have gone the same way but was managed well, and few died, which gives a strong argument against the notion of physical processes being the core reason for famine.
Figure 7. Shows rainfall for 1991-92, 1992-93 and the 30 year mean in different regions of Zambia.
Figure 8. Shows the areas in Africa affected by drought 2002-3
A Closer Look at a Human Cause of Famine
Having examined a predominant natural process which can cause famine it is now necessary to examine a human cause. One of the principal causes is desertification; the diminution or destruction of the biological potential of the land, often resulting in ‘desert’ like conditions. It is caused by human and natural processes but it is the human processes which make it desertification and cause famine. Figure 9. Explains what desertification is.
Figure 9. Desertification
Figure 10. Map of Arid and Semi-arid climates of the world.
Figure 11. Shows the suggested causes of land degradation
Case Study of Desertification
The Sahel Region of Northern Africa
The Sahel Region of Africa is a transitional zone between the Sahara desert in the north and Savannas in the south.
Figure 12. Desertification in the Sahel.
Figure 13. The Sahel region extends across Africa along the southern edge of the Sahara.
Looking at this information about desertification in The Sahel Region of Africa one observation to be made is that when drought occurs, and this reacts with the many human causes the outcome is desertification or soil degradation. In turn this creates famine, and as well as this and other consequences described in figure 10, it also causes drought to occur and have a much more damaging effect, because there is not enough soil moisture utilisation to sustain society and farming as the land is becoming desertified. It is a ‘vicious circle, (figure11.) and thus the ability to recover the land gets more and more difficult.
Figure 14. The ‘Vicious’ Circle of Desertification
Drought, war and civil unrest, population growth and pressure etc.
Desertification, soil degradation, lack of soil moisture
Famine, death, disease, loss of livestock, crops, desertified un-arable land.
WAR CASE STUDY?
Analysis of Famine – Africa
Having examined different causes of famine, and how these causes take out their effect on famine it is now necessary to look in to at further depth a continent wide famine, which has been caused due to several of the reasons already given. The case study of Africa particularly Ethiopia is a good example to use because not only has famine been caused, it looks as though it will have a long term lasting effect due to civil unrest, disease and erratic weather.
Figure 15. African/Ethiopian Famine Case Study
Figure 16. The effect of AIDS on life expectancy in selected African countries compared to life expectancy changes in developed countries.
Figure 17. Graph shows the declining life expectancy in selected sub-Saharan countries compared to the increasing life expectancy in developed countries.
What these statistics and graph show is the clear difference in movement of life expectancy. The underdeveloped countries which face problems of drought, famine, and AIDS find there life expectancy rates rapidly deceasing, while developed countries that do not face such pressures find there life expectancy rates steadily rising.
