4.3 Population-resource relationships Flashcards
(34 cards)
What is food security?
Concept of having available, accessible and affordable food that is safe and nutritious so that people may live a healthy lifestyle
What are the environmental factors that lead to food insecurity?
- extreme climate food cannot grow and crops/livestock need the right amount of water sunlight and heat in order to survive
- climatic hazards such as floods, droughts, tropical storms and wildfires can be detrimental to crops and livestock
What are the economic factors that lead food shortages?
- LICs may lack funding for agricultural technology and innovation, causes less productivity and so food shortages
- in areas where productivity is poor, still opportunity to purchase food from other areas where productivity is higher
- however in poorer areas, many cannot afford to buy food
What are the political factors that cause food shortages?
- wars and severe political instability can majorly disrupt food supplies in a country
- disruption can make it difficult to source food through growing it or importing it
- global links e.g trade agreements can affect food supplies
What are the effects of food shortages?
- Hunger - caused by lack of food. This can lead to under nutrition and even famine.
- soil erosion - removal of soil occurs more rapidly in areas that are very dry. Food insecurity can lead to soil erosion as farmers try to get more out their land.deforestation, overgrazing and over-cultivation expose the soil and make it vulnerable to erosion.
- Rising prices - when less food available, prices increase. Poor countries more vulnerable. Also means people cannot afford to be picky so many eat poor quality food. Can leave people vulnerable to diseases such as food poisoning if food is contaminated.
- social unrest - can cause conflict if two countries want the same food supply
What are the three strategies to ensure food security?
Increasing access
Increasing amount
Increasing efficiency
How can you increase access to food?
- increase country’s access to foreign markets so they can import food
- trading agreements such as trade blocs can be very beneficial
How can we increase the amount of food?
Use of appropriate technology:
- using dams to provide water
- improved food storage
- strip cropping (limits runoff as always a strip of food to trap water)
Green Revolution:
- use of pesticides fertilisers to improve yield
- development of high yielding varieties which are resistant to drought/take less time to grow
Irrigation:
- artificial watering
- surface irrigation and drip irrigation
problems: water depletion, increased competition, increased soil salt water content damaging crops
Selective breeding:
- dairy cows
- beef cattle
How can we increase efficiency in order to ensure food security?
- makes it more available, more affordable and are less expenditures
- waste reduced
PRACTICAL ACTION - show people practice ways to overcome issues such as food insecurity
- improving efficiency of food practices, so amount/quality improved
- e.g worked to incorporate rainwater harvesting in disadvantaged areas
What different constraints control population?
Poverty
Famine
Plague/disease
War
Natural disaster
Political instability/corruption
Unfair trade policies
How does poverty control population?
- Lack of money means that an individual cannot purchase the resources needed to sustain life
- country cannot afford development of infrastructure that would allow economic development
How does famine control population?
- failure of crops can be due to natural causes e.g drought or human activity e.g overusing resources
- poverty + growing population contribute to exhaustion of soil and shortage of food
- leads to starvation and death
How does disease(plague) control population?
- more likely to affect people who have poor nutrition as poverty and famine contribute to spread of disease
How does war control population?
- kill lots of people
- can be a result of shortage of resources
- leads to destruction of houses, infrastructure and crops which contribute to long term deaths
How does political instability and corruption control the population?
- can lead to lack of foreign investment
- e.g Chad has large reserves of oil and they make a lot of money from this. However, due to corruption and instability in the gov neither the world bank nor the oil TNCs are prepared to invest in the infrastructure that would allow Chad to its oil to support its people.
How do natural disaster control population?
- kill people and destroy society’s means of supporting itself
- leading to further death
- e.g 2011 Japan earthquake/tsunami - 15,000 deaths
How do unfair trade policies control population?
- make it difficult for an LIC to use its natural resources to support and sustain social/economic development
What is carrying capacity?
- maximum number of people that can be supported by the resources of an area
- may not be about numbers of people but living standards that people have and the difference that may occur (ruralvsurban)
- innovations such as improvements to agriculture can lead to an increase in carrying capacity
- certain aspects of resources are fixed - e.g mountainous landscapes
What is overpopulation?
too many people to be supported by the environment and its resources
Example: Bangladesh - home to 170 million people
What is optimum population?
Concept where the human population is able to balance maintaining a maximum population size with optimal standards of living for all people
Although some link it to the best use of resources or highest level of income
What is underpopulation?
- too little people to fully utilize the environment and its resources
What are the causes of underpopulation?
1.Environmental disadvantages:
- extreme climates
- difficult to clear vegetation
- infertile soils
2Accessibility :
- if difficult/costly to travel to an area, reluctant to do so
- larger the area harder the development of successful network communications as more expensive
-
Communication:
- roads difficult to construct in some areas
- costs too high to justify building better roads
- railways more efficient but expensive
- some areas not suitable for planes e.g forest -
Remoteness:
- long way from large centres of population
- can cause trading difficulties
5.Historical:
- many underpopulated areas linked to colonialism
-
Type of economy:
- traditional farming only support small numbers
What are the consequences of underpopulation?
-
High rate of immigration:
- people will immigrate elsewhere
- foreign workers can help to develop economy but if more qualified or prepared to be paid less than locals can create problems
2.Regional disparities:
- large regional differences in wealth/development
- people may migrate to wealthier areas
3. Service Provision:
- overall lack of demand in underpopulated areas have a lower than average service provision
4. Urban Population:
- tend to exhibit high degree of urbanisation as people tend to live in more settled urban areas
5.High standard of living:
- majority of underpopulated countries MEDCs
- high levels of tech and good standard of living
What is Brazil doing to try to overcome underpopulation?
-
Pro-natalist Policies:
- encouraging large families, using slogans such as more children, more brazil
- paid maternity leave - 6 months
- private sector 20 day paternity leave -
incentives for rural settlement and farming:
- national program for land reform aims to move landless families to sparsely populated areas
- land grants/low interest loans -
tax benefits and family subsidies:
- bolsa familia program: financial support for low income families with children attending school/vaccinated -
regional infrastructure development:
- new roads to link agricultural regions to markets - e.g BR-163 Highway - encourage migration from coastal areas e.g Rio to inland cities e.g Brasilia: brasilia - built in 1960 to shift population inland
