Food And Resources Case Studies

Question 1

Climate change

Answer 1

Tropical sb Saharan Africa is one of regions that already experiences food shortages.
Due to climate change, this area will experience up to 50% reduction in food production that will worsen the food shortage problem already present

Question 2

Climate change 2

Answer 2

Shrinking of glaciers due to global warming is predicted to reduce food supply over the coming decades
Seasonal melting of glaciers provides river basins of major rivers in India and china to irrigate food crops during the dry season.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC) respires that these glaciers are receding rapidly and could entirely melt by 2035
The loss of water from glaciers would lead to smaller harvests for Farmers due to lack of water for irrigation

Question 3

Extreme weather events can cause food shortages

Answer 3

Flooding that flooded months of intense droughts cause food shortages In 2009 when floods destroyed 260000 ha of crops and contaminated grain stocks in millions of homes, causing a loss of 900,000 tons of rice

Question 4

Pests

Answer 4

Liberia(2009) experienced an infestation of caterpillars that devastated food crops in Northern Liberia, feching over 350,000 villagers.

Question 5

Political factors: civil strife

Answer 5

A civil strife is a situation in which a country faces major internal conflicts which may include riots, unrest or civil war
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN(FAO)estimates that there are nearly 10 million people in need of food assistance in sub-Saharan Africa. This i due to the persistent civil strife that has displaced large numbers of people and disrupted food production.

Question 6

Poor governance

Answer 6

Governance: exercise of economic and political authority to mange a country’s affairs.
In 2010 in the indian state of Madhya Pradesh, 40,000 villagers lost their land due to the building of mining, a steel plant and port. The villagers lost the means to produce their own food or earn an income to produce food.

Question 7

Economic factors: demand from emerging economies

Answer 7

Brazil, Russia, China and India have rapidly growing economies. These countries have shown an increase in the demand for food, especially meat and dairy products. This has lead to more land in poorer countries being used to rear cattle for export and less land to grow crops to feed the country.

Question 8

Increasing oil prices.

Answer 8

In 2207, global increases in the price of oil increased 160%. This cause food prices to increase dramatically around the world as much as 25%, causing food shortages in many LDCs, especially in sub Saharan Africa

Question 9

Conversion of farmland to industrial crop production.

Answer 9

The International Food Policy Research Institute has estimated that between 2006 and 2007, 30 % of the increase in the price of food was related to teh production ofBiofuels, causing food shortages in LDCs as ppl may not be able to afford the increase in prices.

Question 10

Social factors-lack of accessibility

Answer 10

In Africa, many rural communities may face food shortages due to the lack of of reliable transport link to other parts of the country where food is available. In The Central African Republic, delivery of food to areas where it is required is hampered by civil war.

Question 11

Inadequate logistics of food distribution an storage

Answer 11

One-third of the population in Timor-Leste experiences food shortages in between harvests. This is due to the lack of storage facilities and difficulty of accessing numerous remote communities.

Question 12

Rapid population growth

Answer 12

It is estimated that by 2025, 75% of Sub-Saharan Africans will have to reply on food aid.
This is due to the increasing populations as well as the small amounts of available land for agriculture as well as rising temperatures.

Question 13

High Yielding Varieties(HYVs)

Answer 13

One HYV called Wonder RIce has a growing season of 100 days rather than 120 days for non-HYVs allowing more harvests per year..

Question 14

Fertilisers

Answer 14

Studies in Africa have shown the proper use of fertilisers have resulted in percentage yield increases of 30% to 250%.

Question 15

Pesticides

Answer 15

Large scale crop production usually involves one type of crop over. A large area.

Malathion was used extensively to address a fruit fly problem in fruit orchards in California, USA.

Question 16

Irrigation

Answer 16

Irrigation is the watering of crops using water from rivers or dams.

In Libya, irrigation projects have made possible the growing of crops in the Sahara desert. Water from underground sources is pumped via tunnels to coastal cities for agriculture, domestic and and industrial use.

Question 17

Mechanisation

Answer 17

Mechanisation is the use of machinery to speed up the process of preparing the land, tending to crops and harvesting.
A combine harvester is a machine that aids in the harvesting of grain crops by performing processes of reaping, threshing, and cleaning into one piece of equipment.

Question 18

Salinization(related to irrigation)

Answer 18

Due to the intense irrigation in the Murray-Darling Basin in Australia, an the high evaporation rates found there, salinization of the Low-lying terrain occurs decreasing the intensity of food production.

Question 19

Groundwater contamination.(related to fertiliser use)

Answer 19

In many agricultural areas of the USA, groundwater supplies have been contaminated.
This is a problem as 23% of freshwater in the USA comes from ground water sources.

Question 20

Eutrophication(related to chemical/fertiliser use)

Answer 20

54% of lakes in Asia are eutrophic, 53% in europe, 48% in North America, 41% in South America and 28% in Africa.