4.3 Resource Relations Flashcards
What are the causes of food shortages in Asia?
- floods in North Korea, china, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka
- war in Iraq
What are the causes of food shortages in Africa?
- in Uganda, Somalia, and Kenya civil war causes political instability + little focus on food
- multiple years of drought in Swaziland and Lesotho
What causes food shortages in Latin America?
- flooding in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua
What causes food shortages in Europe?
- drought + limited access to resources in Moldova
What are the environmental causes of food shortages?
- natural disasters - floods, droughts, disease and pests destroy crops + livestock
- e.g. locusts in Kenya
What are the economic causes of food shortages?
- poor farming practices - overgrazing causing soil exhaustion + excessive focus on producing food for export
- poor storage, distribution and transport - e.g. inefficiencies in transport of milk in Kenya leading to spills, leaks and loss of
Political causes of food shortages?
- war + conflict
- e.g. low investment in farming as funds focused on military in Sudan and South Sudan
Social/demographic causes of food shortages?
- high BR - area will exceed carrying capacity
Why are the impacts of causes of food shortages felt more intensely in LICs?
- inadequate food stocks to cover the emergencies so food supply is affected
- HICs are not immune to physical cause of food problems but they have the Human Resources to cope so food shortages generally don’t occur
- e.g. Australia suffers from droughts but has the financial capability to import food
Consequences of malnutrition?
- people are less resistant to diseases and are more likely to fall ill
- people who are deficient in essential nutrients cannot fill their physical or economic potential
- malnutrition reduces peoples capability to work on the land, so the land is not properly tended
- endless cycle of ill health + low LE, low productivity leads to low food production, increasing prices
- this leads to underdevelopment
Environmental consequences of food shortages?
- deforestation - increased need for cultivated land
- land degradation
- soil erosion
- loss of ecosystem
Political consequences of food shortages?
- people hungry - social unrest
- food riots
- could lead to civil war
Environmental causes of food shortages in Kenya?
- vulnerable to climate shocks - unpredictable rainfall and recurring droughts contribute to the disruption of crops which 95% of are rain fed
- swarms of locusts damage the crops
Economic causes of food shortages in Kenya?
- inefficiencies in food system with poor networks needed to produce and transport food to ensure it reaches the consumer
- most farmers without basic agricultural inputs or updated technology + lack adequate financial or extension services
Social/demographic causes of food shortages in Kenya?
- rapid population growth - 2.9% per year
Social/demographic consequences of food shortages in Kenya?
- malnutrition high, 29% of children in rural areas and 20% in cities suffer
- significant vitamin + mineral deficiencies
Economic consequences of food shortages in Kenya?
- inefficiencies in food system lead to high prices
What were the problems with the distribution of milk in Kenya?
- milk often spills or goes bad due to inefficient transportation equipment
- without access to the right storage for their milk, smallholder dairy farmers lose up to 30% of their product + the income they could’ve made from it
What was the solution to the milk problem in Kenya?
- 2020 - a new custom chilling technology - MaziwaPlus - ensures the safe transportation of fresh milk from smallholder dairy farmers to markets
- the devices can store 100 to 800 litres of milk at the ideal temperate of 4-5°C while in transit - reducing energy costs for dairy aggregators by approx. 30%
- savanna circuit also developed an app which businesses make payments to and communicate with farmers - farmers can also use it to manage loans making it easier for them to access financing from local credit organisations such as banks
What is agricultural technology?
- technology involves developing machinery that will speed up cultivation or extend the farmed area
- it could also involved ICT to control processing + storage, the use of chemicals, new hybrid breeds of plants + animals
- the use of more effective refrigerated transport
- crop spraying from the air
- hydroponics + vertical farming
What is innovation?
- new ideas/approaches to increase farming efficiency which may or may not require technology
- innovation involves transferring techniques from other areas/cultures, new crops/animals, use of waste or by products from animals or crops (organic + sustainable), more efficient processing + packing
What was the green revolution?
- a package of improvements to answer the food problem in many LICs and MICs
- application of science + technology to create high-yielding varieties of many food staples (mainly grains) -> to get more food out of the same area of land - increasing productivity of land
Examples of innovations by the green revolution?
- adoption of new, improved varieties of grains -> 1966 India was on of the first countries to benefit from a high yielding seed program
- 5 cereals: wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, and millet -> drought resistant, shorter growing season, very responsive to fertiliser
- application of better farming techniques -> irrigation, mechanisation, use of fertiliser, use of pesticides
Advantages of the green revolution?
- yields are 2-4 times greater than - India 1950: 500 yield, 2000: 2500 yield
- shortens growing season
- farming incomes have increased
- diets of rural communities varies
- local infrastructure has been upgraded
- employment has been created for industries which supply farms with supplies + machinery
Disadvantages of the Green Revolution
- high amounts of fertilisers and pesticides are needed to optimise production -> both economically and environmentally costly
- new varieties require more weed control + are more susceptible to pests + disease
- middle + higher income farmers have benefited more than low income farmers - thus widening the income gap in rural communities + increasing rural to urban migration
- 1992 UN report found that counties whose food uptake had risen, diseases associated with vitamin + mineral deficiencies had increased -> crops have replaced common produce so many people in these counties have low levels of zinc, iron and vitamin A
- mechanisation of increased rural unemployment
- some new varieties have inferior taste
What is overpopulation?
The number of people living in an area is greater than the resources available to support that population
What is under population?
The number of people in an area is less than is needed to make full use of the resources available
Optimum population
The ideal number of people for the environment and resources
What are the problems with under population?
- shortage of workers
- low level of production
- resources underused
- high taxes
- lack of government spending
Problems with overpopulation?
- unemployment
- low levels of development - low GDP/capita, poor quality housing, food shortages
- overuse of resources
- govt. can’t afford to invest in services
What is carrying capacity?
maximum population size that the environment can sustain indefinitely, given the food, habitat, water and other necessities available in the environment
Why is carrying capacity relevant to the world today?
- population increase
- growing impact on resources + the environment
- famines/wars/natural disasters/ climate change
How do ‘pessimists’ view the balance between population growth + resources?
- Thomas Malthus argued that population increases faster than the support food resources - can’t keep pace
- he believed the population resource balance is maintained by checks - famine, drought, natural restraint
- supported by modern day ‘club of Rome’ 1972 - believed developments in technology as well as population growth has caused environmental degradation + resource depletion
Are countries in east Africa having a neo-Malthusian crisis?
- climate crisis - 5 consecutive years of drought, as well as flash floods in Somalia
- more than 500,000 children under the age of 5 are severely malnourished in Somalia
- ongoing conflict, political instability, soaring food prices due to war in Ukraine - causing food insecurity
What was ester boserup’s theory?
- emphasised the positive aspects of a large population
- suggested the more people there are, the more hands there are to work
- as population increases, more pressure is placed on the agricultural system -> stimulates invention, technology to improve crop strains + increase yield
Evidence to back up Boserup’s theory?
- green revolution (which started in India) developed technology which created high yielding variants of crops
- Maziwa+ in Kenya
To what extent do you believe carrying capacity can be increased in today’s modern world?
- carrying capacity is a fixed (Malthus) - population can exceed carrying capacity leading to malnutrition, famine, starvation - still an issue in LICs —> however, there are other factors responsible for food insecurity - political instability, poor
- carrying capacity is not fixed - there is evidence of effective technological advances which have expanded the carrying capacity of a country
- However, it is influenced by other factors - natural disasters, war, trade barriers
- innovation in agriculture can increase carrying capacity but their is a limit - technology can only improve the capability of an area to increase food production up to a point when declining marginal return set in - land degradation etc.
