Food problems are very evident mostly in developing countries which are still unstable politically and mostly economically. Majority of the people in these countries suffer from starvation and at the long run even die out of this prolonged hunger. Most of these developing countries are found in Africa. Unlike these developing countries in Africa that are suffering from food problems, the developed countries rarely encounter such problems. There are many factors that contribute to these food shortages but the main cause in the developing nations is the unstable political structures (Southgate 2007).
The political stability of a given country determines its governance. Therefore, if the governance of a particular country is poor then its people suffer. The governance of many developing countries is unstable and that is why its people are experiencing food problems. For instance, these governments have not yet advanced in terms of technology in the agricultural sector. This leads to low yields of the farm products in the entire country that eventually leads to food shortage since the little food produced cannot match the growing population. In developed countries there are stable governments that have really advanced in their level of technology in all sectors of the economy where agricultural sector is one of them. The agricultural sector in these countries is performing very well and the farmers in these respective countries are able to engage in mass production of food products. When there is mass production of food products in a given country, automatically the prices of those food products become cheaper and hence becoming affordable to every citizen of the country.
The other major reason why there is a problem of food mostly in the developing countries is because there is high unemployment rate that is making them unable to purchase the food that is available in the market places. Only a few individuals who are at least financially stable can purchase these products and they find it hard to share their acquired food because they only find enough to keep them and their respective families. This problem would be solved well if the governments of these respective countries could try their best to create jobs for their respective citizens mostly those that do have families they are supporting. When the parents of a family are jobless they automatically cause their children to suffer food problems and other problems that are related to their lack of employment such as decent housing, clothing and basic education. The government of these respective countries can even give their unemployed citizens financial supports to start their own business if they find that the jobs in their countries are scarce and cannot manage to employ all of its citizens. When these individuals open their own businesses, they will at least earn a leaving out of it which will reduce the food problems that they are undergoing in their respective families (Knight 2012).
The other factor that has led to the food problems in these developing countries is the natural calamities such as the drought. Natural calamities are almost impossible to be prevented but scientists have been in the business of trying to find ways of how they can control these natural calamities such as drought by even advising the governments to encourage citizens to plant more trees so that they can get some rain to solve this problem. Trees are scientifically believed that they do help to generate rain in a particular region because they act as catchments for water. The developing countries are reluctant to this fact and instead of them planting more trees some of the greedy and selfish people are cutting down the trees for commercial purposes not caring that they are affecting the future of their respective country at large (Lester 2008).
The government of the developed countries have formulated laws that punish harshly anyone who is found cutting down trees without prior consent from the government and hence they are enjoying the benefits that come from the trees that include rain and even fresh environment. The agricultural sectors all over the world depend highly on water and hence if there are no rains they have to suffer or forced to find alternative ways of getting water to irrigate their farms. As earlier mentioned, if the governments of these particular countries do not have advanced technology in the agricultural sector, then they will lack an alternative if they are faced by a natural calamity such as the drought (Lincoln 1998)
The other issue that is leading to food problems in the developing countries is the over growing population as it is making it impossible for the government to afford high quality care for the entire citizens. When the population of a country increases, there are some associated problems that will automatically arise such as increase in the level of unemployment which leads to food problems in the developing countries. In addition the agricultural products that are being produced cannot be sufficient to satisfy the big population in that particular country and this creates food shortage that leads to increase in the prices of the agricultural products hence becoming unaffordable to the poor in that country (Lester 2008).
Other problems are also associated with the food problems in the developing countries that include low level of education and health. People are not able to find time to go to school but rather look for ways that they can obtain their daily bread which in the long run leads to unemployment since they lack the qualifications needed in the major economic sectors in the country. Furthermore, the health of the people of these developing countries that are experiencing food problems is at risk because there are those major diseases that are associated with lack of food that are leading to high mortality rate. It is the high time that the developed countries came to the aid of these developing countries to offer them with food support and also advise them how they can solve these food problems (Lester 2011).
They should educate them to conserve their environment always, plant trees, have family planning, and develop entrepreneurial skills instead of them remaining unemployed. By this they will be helping the developing countries to deal with their cause reason for food problems and not just the problem. In the long run they will be in a position to support themselves and even other developing countries that may still be suffering from the food problems. The united nations have been in this business of solving the food problems in the developing countries but on their own they cannot effectively and efficiently be able to solve it. That is why there are non governmental organizations that are being formed to help solve this food crisis such as the Red Cross. If all this parties that we have discussed above can unite their efforts in support of developing countries then food problems will come to an end (Grigg 1993).
References
Grigg, D 1993, The world food problem, Blackwell, Oxford.
Knight, E. 2012, How to solve the world’s trickiest problems, Black Inc, California.
Lester, B 2008, Creating new jobs, Earth Training Institute, California.
Lester, B 2008, Mobilizing to save civilization, Earth Policy Institute, California.
Lester, B 2011, The new geopolitics of food, Foreign Policy, Washington.
Lincoln, S 1998, The ultimate resource to Princeton, Princeton University Press, New York.
Southgate, D 2007, The world food economy, Blackwell, Oxford.