Agricultural Decline in the Pacific Region

Food Crises, The Big Picture

• This is the overall topic of the material, covering various aspects of food crises.

Table of Contents

• Lecture topics are listed, with page numbers for each.

Week 1, Lecture 1, Literature, Malthus's Zombie

• Malthus's theory posited population increases geometrically, while food production increases arithmetically.
• This predicted inevitable mass starvation.
• The concept of a "Malthusian zombie" represents a catastrophic, inevitable famine that reduces population to the level of food production.
• Historical famines were often considered to be economic or political issues rather than simply lack of food.
• The environment, development, crisis, and crusade section highlighted misguided colonial and post-colonial policies related to understanding local knowledge, ecological conditions, and social dynamics.
• External interventions often exacerbated the problem, rather than solved it.
• Importance of considering local perspectives and environmental knowledge.

Week 1, Lecture 1, Environment, Development, Crisis, and Crusade

• Colonial and post-colonial policies in Ukambani largely caused crises, misunderstanding local knowledge and dynamics.
• External interventions frequently made matters worse.
• British colonial policies disrupted traditional patterns and equilibrium, leading to further ecological harm and social unrest.

Week 2, Lecture 3, From the classical soup kitchen to the Irish famine

• The changing views on charity as a response to famine.
• The concept of a soup kitchen initially focused on orderliness, work, and good behaviour to receive food, but this changed to a system centered on cash.
• Criticisms of the soup kitchen's effect on charity and communal reliance.
• Examining the role of weather and political context in famines, using the Irish famine as example.

Week 2, Lecture 3, Were Indian famines natural or manmade?

• Whether or not famines result from natural causes or from human policies and practices is examined, using Indian history as a case study.
• Key factors contributing and influencing the issue such as, Limited knowledge of the Indian state, Trade cost, Barriers to market integrations, and the related issue of epidemics, were studied as a factor for food crises in 19th century India.

Week 3, Lectures 5-6, The 1974 and 1984 floods in Bangladesh and The Causation and prevention of Famines: Critique on Sen

• The 1974 and 1984 floods in Bangladesh highlighted the importance of institutional development, systems of monitoring food production, and the improvement of policies targeting those in need to prevent famines.
• The argument on how policies and theories of famine (critical on Amartya Sen) can help prevent or resolve a food crisis.

Week 5, Lecture 9, Pastoral coping and adaptation strategies

• Coping mechanisms in times of food crises, such as selling cattle or shifting to alternative sources of food, were examined, both used as immediate and long-term solutions.
• Adaptation strategies are studied, exploring the factors and dynamics influencing these approaches.
• The coping mechanisms are examined, as well as the ways they have evolved to be able to withstand climate change.

Week 6, Lecture 10, Food Security in the Island Pacific

• Examining the causes of food insecurity in the Pacific Islands.
• Key factors like a decline in the availability of locally produced food, challenges in the infrastructure support, and the rise of costly foreign foods contributed to food insecurity.
• The dependence on imported foods influenced dietary changes and preferences, which led to other social adjustments.

Week 6, Lecture 11, How the Urban Poor Define and Measure Food Security in Cambodia and Nepal

• In this context, urbanisation and increased buying power as opposed to homegrown produce, influence the way food security is determined and measured by urban populations, in case studies from Cambodia and Nepal.
• Change in patterns and coping mechanisms are explored in Cambodia and Nepal, given the increase in both urbanisation and poverty.
• Examining food insecurity is determined by income and food availability and how urban poor groups cope.
• Highlighting the interplay between the increasing prevalence of urbanisation and the different ways people adapt to sustain food security given a decrease in locally produced food.

Week 7, Lecture 12, Uncertainty of Informal Sector Employment, Causes of Famine

• The role of agricultural production, drought, and related interventions, were studies in detail as causes of famines.
• The definition of famine and the message of the de Waal and related perspectives on the complexities of famine were critically studied.