Population resource relationships

Question 1

Food security

Answer 1

1996 world food summit put forward idea that food security “exists when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs as well as their preferences”

Question 2

Food security is dependent on 3 factors

Answer 2

1. food availability
2. food access
3. food use

Question 3

Food shortages causes:

When were there food shortages?

Answer 3

In 2007-2008 there were severe food shortages

• poor harvests in USA and Europe
• competition with biofuels causing wheat prices to rise as US farmers planted less wheat and more maize to capitalise on the demand for biofuels
• surging demand in china and India
• multi-year prolonged drought in Australia causing wheat production to fall to 11 and 13 million tonnes in 2006/7 compared to 24 million tonnes in 2013

Question 4

Food shortages Consequences

Answer 4

• led to an increase in food prices worldwide
• when prices rise consumers shift to cheaper less nutritious food
• heightening risk of macronutrient deficiency eg. scurvy
• in developing countries farmers cannot afford increased priced seeds and therefore cannot provide for their family

Question 5

What is meant by increasing food production

Answer 5

• developing skills and technology suited to the level of wealth, knowledge and skills of local people and is developed to meet their specific needs

Question 6

Ways in which appropriate technology can be used to increase food production
- 4 ways

Answer 6

• building of small earth dams to provide water
• improved water storage - allows food to be kept fresh for longer
• methods of soil conservation - eg. plant trees to protect from soil erosion
• strip cropping - alternate strips of crops at different stages of growth across a slope - limits runoff

Question 7

Increasing food production with irrigation

positives

negatives

Answer 7

• artificial watering of crops
• used in dry areas and in periods of rainfall shortfall but also to protect plants against frost
• helps to surpress weeds growing in rice fields
• increased competition for water
• over extraction of water = drying up of aquifers

Question 8

increasing food production with selective breeding

Answer 8

breeding programs have focused on the genetic improvement of production traits eg. milk yeild, growth rate and weight gain

Question 9

The role of constraints in sustaining populations

human
natural
political

Answer 9

HUMAN

• poverty
• famine
• plague
• war

NATURAL
-natural disasters

POLITICAL

• political instability and corruption
• unfair trade policies

Question 10

define carry capacity

define population ceiling

Answer 10

maximum number of people who can be supported by the resources of an area

sometimes used in describing the carrying capacity as a barrie to future population growth

Question 11

overpopulation

Answer 11

occurs where a country has too many people overusing the resources at a given level of technology

Question 12

optimum population

Answer 12

balance between population and resources exists.

however this is governments view not the people’s therefore can be subjective

Question 13

underpopulation

Answer 13

occurs in a country or region where there are too few people to make full use of the resources at a given level of technology
eg. australia, canada

Question 14

population density

Answer 14

average number of people per unit area in a region/country

express population in a country in relation to the resources in a country or region at a given level of technology