GEOGRAPHY FORM 3 STUDY PACK

NAME OF TEACHER: MRS MUSHANINGA

SYLLABUS CODE: 0460

WEEK 6 : (LESSON 1)

TOPIC: FOOD SHORTAGES – CAUSES AND SOLUTIONS

 LEARNING OBJECTIVES
 Identify and explain the causes, effects and solutions to food shortages.
 Describe the causes of food shortages in a named area.
Command words Define - Give the meaning or definition of a word or phrase.
Identify Pick out something from information you have been given.
Describe - Write what something is like or where it is.
Describe and explain-say what it is like and give reasons for this.
Explain - Write about why something occurs or happens.

INSTRUCTIONS

 Read the notes on food shortages.

 Watch the video clip and write short notes.
 Answer the question given at the end of this paper and submit your work.
LESSON BREAK DOWN TIME ALLOCATED TEACHING AND LEARNING ACTIVITIES

0-15mins • Learners log in and describe the photographs showing impacts of food shortages. •
Teacher comments.
15-30mins • Individual presentations on the causes and impacts of food shortages. • Class
discussions on the presentations
30-45mins • In turns learners suggest ways to reduce food shortages and class comments on
the points raised
45-60mins • Individual testing of the concept learnt through quiz questions. • Teacher gives
follow up activities

Media files
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUmJGQo6UTk food shortages.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XUmJGQo6UTk S SUDAN.
KEY TERMS

FOOD SHORTAGE: This is whereby an area experience starvation due to

economic, social, political and environmental factors.

FOOD SECURITY: This is to ensure that people get food all the times.

GREEN REVOLUTION: This is the scientific approach to farming.FOOD

SHORTAGES
FOOD SECURITY
 Is ensuring that all people at all times have both physical and economic
access to the basic food they need.
 It ensures that people have the ability to have access, supply of the basic food
stuffs at all times to sustain a steady expansion of food consumption and to
offset all food production costs and fluctuations.

FOOD SHORTAGES
Causes of food shortages
NATURAL

 Temperature: Temperatures that are too hot or too cold can both kill crops and animals. Most
crops need steady and reliable temperatures.
 Droughts: If there is a shortage of rainfall then most crops will die or need extra irrigation. If
water to irrigate is not available then crops will begin to die and yields reduce.
 Flooding: Although all crops need rainfall, especially things like rice, too much rainfall can flood
and kill crops or wash away topsoil reducing the soils fertility. (El Salvador Counts Cost as Crops
are Destroyed by Floods - BBC article)
 Natural Disasters: Natural disasters like hurricanes, tsunamis and volcanoes can destroy large
areas of agricultural land. They can also kill or injure farmers. Both factors reduce yields.
 Soil fertility: If soil is infertile because the bedrock contains few minerals or there is no flora and
fauna to provide a humus layer then it can be hard to cultivate the land and lead to low yields.
 Pests: Various pests such as locust swarms, birds etc can eat crops and reduce yields.

HUMAN
 Overpopulation: The growing population of the world means that demand for food is
increasing. Unfortunately the supply of food is not always matching this demand. This is
a problem that Malthus predicted.
 Overgrazing: By trying to graze too many cattle on land, all the vegetation can be eaten.
This reduces the integrity of the soil and can cause topsoil erosion and soil degradation.
 Overcultivation: Trying to grow much on land can cause its degradation by using all the
nutrients and not giving them time to recover. If the land becomes degraded then the
yields decline.
 Deforestation: By deforesting large areas of woodland, then again the integrity of the
soil can be damaged as well as its source of nutrients. This can cause soil degradation and
erosion, both leading to reduced yields.
 Pollution: Farming and industrial pollution can both degrade the land and reduce yields
of crops.
 Conflict: When fighting takes place, it is often men that fight removing them from
farming duties and therefore reducing yield. Also conflict can also make the land too
dangerous to farm (mines) or degrade the soil because of chemical or biological warfare.
 Corruption: Sometimes government officials or armies can use crops for themselves or
their own needs leading the general population to go hungry.
 Low capital investment: Not investing enough money into the infrastructure needed to
sustain agriculture such as roads, storage facilities, machinery, seeds etc. This means that
agriculture will not develop in line with population growth
 Food shortages in sub-Sahara region.- Case study
 Causes of shortage are frequent droughts, civil strife, economic crisis, locust
and pests, floods, HIV and aids.
 This has disrupted food production and displaced large populations
 Green revolution is at minimum due limited capital investments in agriculture
activities and reforms.
 The soils have fertility constrains, lower water holding capacity, limited
nutrients making the soils vulnerable to erosion.
 Increased population growth has reduced fallow periods for shifting
cultivation, bush fallowing and nomadic pastoral farming
 Overgrazing has contributed to desertification.
 Sub-Saharan countries rely on overseas aid which is channeled to unintended
projects some of which promote monoculture e.g. growing of cash crops
instead of food production and sustainable farming systems.
 Food shortages are increasing with wars and, HIV and aids reducing time,
ability and agricultural productivity.

EFFECTS OF FOOD SHORTAGES

Marasmus is a form of severe malnutrition characterized by energy

deficiency. A child with marasmus looks emaciated. Body weight is reduced to less than 60% of the
normal (expected) body weight for the age.
 Kwashiorkor is a form of severe protein
malnutrition characterized by edema, irritability, anorexia, ulcerating dermatoses, and an enlarged liver
with fatty infiltrates. Sufficient calorie intake, but with insufficient protein consumption.

 death/starvation/low life expectancy/malnutrition/famine;

 people are too weak/cannot work properly;
 people cannot resist disease/infection/people easily get disease;
 increased food prices
 reduction of future output,
 cycle of poverty,
 dependence on aid supplies, etc.

Methods which can be used to reduce food shortages in LEDCs.

 irrigation;
 use of fertilisers/manure;
 use of perticides; herbicides/weedkillers;
 land reform – redistributing the land.
 use of high quality seeds, example GM crops/HYV seeds;
 improve food distribution network;
 improve food storage/refrigeration and construction of grain silos
 use of greenhouses
 mechanization
 the green revolution
Practice questions

1. 1dentify and describe the causes of food shortages. [5]

2. What can be done to increase food supply. [3]
3. For a named area or country which you have studied which suffers from
famine, explain why there is a shortage of food.[7]