14. Causes of food shortage
Research on causes of food shortage:
Physical
Extreme weather
climate change
pest
Extreme weather such as drought can result in food shortage
Droughts resulted in water crisis and affected crop production in Thailand and South Africa.
When did the drought occur?
Where did the drought occur?
Who do the drought affect?
What is the cause of the drought?
Why does the drought threaten water security?
How does the drought affect crop production?
Climate change can cause food shortage
Watch the video below:
How climate change affects food production in Thailand
Read more at
Pest resulting in food shortage
It is the worst outbreak of desert locusts in Kenya with hundreds of millions of the bugs swarm into the East African nation from Somalia and Ethiopia eating up corn, sorghum and cowpeas. The locust destroyed farmland and threatened an already vulnerable region with devastating hunger.
Locust invasion is the biggest in Ethiopia and Somalia in 25 years, and the biggest in Kenya in 70 years. Climate change has contributed to ‘exceptional’ breeding conditions for the locust.
Where are the areas affected by the locusts?
Who are affected by the invasion of the locusts?
Why does the locust threaten food security?
What other factors cause food shortage in Uganda and East Africa?
Political
civil strife
poor governance
The Saudi led war in Yemen causing food shortage and starvation
Economic
rising demand for meat and diary products from emerging economies,
soaring cost of fertilisers and transport,
conversion of farmland to industrial crop production
Rising demand for meat in China
Many farmers are growing cash crops instead of food crops due to the higher profits from the growing of cash crops.
Watch the video below in the case of Zimbabwe.
https://youtu.be/ExH6kSwoFBw
Food price riots http://blogs.worldbank.org/category/tags/food-crisis
Wheat crisis due a combination of physical, economic and political factors.
Social
lack of accessibility,
inadequate logistics of food distributions and storage,
rapid population growth