The causes of famine
AdvancedFamine rarely has a single cause: drought, floods and pests trigger harvest failure, while war, poverty and unequal distribution stop food reaching people. It is their combination that turns hunger into famine.
- Famine is large-scale, prolonged hunger with deaths — rarely from a single cause
- Natural factors: drought (the Sahel), floods (Bangladesh), pests (the East African locusts)
- Human factors: war (Yemen, South Sudan), poverty, unequal distribution
文體小知識：成因分析課：把一場災難拆成自然因素與人為因素兩條線，再說明兩者如何互相加深——答題時兩邊都要寫，記住「天災觸發、人禍放大」。
§Text Passage
1Famine is a disaster in which a large population in a region faces prolonged food shortage, severe undernourishment and death. It rarely has a single cause: most famines combine natural and human factors. Understanding the causes is the first step to solving them.
2Among natural factors, drought is the most common culprit. The Sahel, on the edge of the Sahara, already has low and unreliable rainfall; when the rains fail for a year or two, crops fail across whole regions, livestock die, and herders and farmers lose their livelihoods together. Floods are equally deadly: Bangladesh sits on the Ganges delta, where monsoon downpours drown fields and wash away stored grain. Pests matter too: from 2019 to 2021 East Africa suffered its worst desert locust outbreak in decades — one swarm can eat the food of tens of thousands of people in a single day.
3Yet natural hazard does not automatically mean famine; human factors are often decisive. War drives farmers from their fields, blocks roads and keeps aid out — the famines in Yemen and South Sudan are directly tied to civil wars. Poverty leaves families without savings or reserves, so a single failed harvest can cut off their food. Unequal distribution means food exists but never reaches those who need it, because of transport, markets or politics. The economist Amartya Sen showed that modern famines are usually not about the absence of food, but about some people losing access to it.
4So build a chain of causes: natural factors trigger harvest failure; human factors decide whether failure deepens into famine. The same drought, in a region with good infrastructure, government reserves and early warning, may only cut yields; in a poor, war-torn region it can become a disaster threatening millions.
1Summary 重點摘要
Famine rarely has a single cause: drought, floods and pests trigger harvest failure, while war, poverty and unequal distribution stop food reaching people. It is their combination that turns hunger into famine.
2Vocabulary cards Vocabulary
A disaster in which a large population faces prolonged food shortage, severe undernourishment and death.
A prolonged shortfall of rain far below normal, drying soils and ruining crops.
The semi-arid belt south of the Sahara with low, unreliable rainfall — a hotspot of drought and food crises.
A disaster in which swarming locusts strip crops; the 2019 to 2021 desert locust outbreak left millions short of food in East Africa.
Winds that reverse with the seasons and bring the rains; South Asian farming depends on them, and too much or too little brings disaster.
War between armed groups within one country; it destroys farming, transport and aid — a key human cause of modern famine.
Enough food exists overall, but poverty, markets and transport keep it from those who need it.
The Indian economist and Nobel laureate who showed that modern famines stem from people losing access to food, not from a global lack of it.
When harvests fall far below normal — the first link in the chain leading to famine.
3Step by step Steps
- Para 1: defining famineFamine is a disaster in which a large population goes without food for a long period and large-scale deaths follow — fundamentally different from a temporary price spike or a single failed harvest. In 2011, drought and war together killed over 250,000 people in the Horn of Africa: famine as systemic collapse. The definition sets the scale — a food crisis is a warning sign, while a famine is the failure of society, economy and politics all at once; the two must not be confused.
- Para 2: natural factor one — droughtDrought is the most common trigger. The Sahel gets only about 100 to 600 mm of rain a year, swinging wildly from year to year; the great drought of the 1970s killed hundreds of thousands, and Ethiopia's 1980s famine likewise followed years of failed rainy seasons. Where irrigation is scarce and farming depends on the sky, missing rain means missing harvests, and once family reserves run out the crisis spreads fast.
- Para 2: natural factors two and three — floods and pestsFloods and pests also shatter food supply. Bangladesh, low on the Ganges delta, saw floods in 1988 and 1998 drown some 60% or more of the country, destroying fields, homes and grain stores; from 2019 to 2021 East Africa faced its worst desert locust invasion in decades — a one-square-kilometre swarm can eat the daily food of about 35,000 people — heaping misery on fragile regions and sending prices soaring.
- Para 3: human factor one — warWar upgrades shortage into famine. Yemen's civil war has blocked ports and roads and kept aid out, leaving over half the population dependent on assistance to survive; South Sudan's war drove farmers from their fields, and parts of the country formally declared famine in 2017. War's cruelty lies in destroying precisely the systems of distribution and relief: bridges cut, markets scattered, aid agencies unable to work safely — so food cannot reach the hungry even when it exists.
- Para 3: human factors two and three — poverty and unequal distributionPoor families hold no reserves, so one failed harvest cuts off food; and the world's granaries often sit thousands of kilometres away, so food that cannot be bought or shipped never reaches the hungry. Amartya Sen, the Nobel-winning economist, found that during Bangladesh's 1974 famine the national food supply had not fallen sharply from the year before — the failure lay in distribution and purchasing power. The finding transformed how the world understands famine.
- Para 4: the chain-of-causes methodChain-of-causes framing works best for famine questions: natural factors trigger the crisis, human factors decide whether it amplifies into famine. The same drought passes Israel by thanks to irrigation systems and national reserves, yet can push Somalia toward famine — the difference is human conditions. List natural factors first, then human ones, and close with contrasting evidence: the layers become clear and the argument stronger.
- Summary: hazard plus human failureThe motto is 'natural hazards trigger, human failures amplify': drought, floods and locusts start the chain, while war, poverty and unequal distribution decide the ending. Evaluation answers need both sides with one example each — Sahel drought beside Yemen's civil war shows that hazard alone makes no famine, and institutional failure is the fatal link. Master this main line and every famine question type follows.
4Diagrams Diagrams
5Worked example Example
Example: 'Drought is the most important cause of famine.' How far do you agree? Give reasons.
- Acknowledge the natural trigger: drought, floods and locusts directly cause crop failure — as in East Africa's 2019 to 2021 locust outbreak on top of drought
- Then argue human factors are often decisive: war blocks aid, poverty leaves no reserves, distribution fails — Yemen's famine owes more to civil war than to scant rain
- Compare: equally drought-prone places with irrigation and early warning merely lose some yield; famine breaks out where poverty and war prevail
- Conclude: drought matters but is not necessarily 'most important' — it triggers the crisis; human factors decide whether it escalates into famine
- Answer: Only partly agree. Natural factors are the trigger, but modern famines almost always combine war, poverty and unequal distribution; Yemen and South Sudan show human factors often outweigh the hazard. Tip: state your position first, support both sides with examples, and answer the comparative word 'most'.
6Common mistakes Mistakes
7Quick check Quick check
Q1Give two natural causes of crop failure, each with a named region.
Q2Why does war cause famine?
Q3What did Amartya Sen conclude about modern famines?
Q4Why can the same drought end differently in different places?
Q5Summarise famine formation in one chain of causes.
8Recap Recap
- Famine is large-scale, prolonged hunger with deaths — rarely from a single cause
- Natural factors: drought (the Sahel), floods (Bangladesh), pests (the East African locusts)
- Human factors: war (Yemen, South Sudan), poverty, unequal distribution
- Sen's finding: modern famines are usually food existing while some people lose access
- Answer frame: hazards trigger, human failure amplifies — give examples on both sides