ABSTRACT

Subsistence crises were rarely unicausal. Modern famine research perceives the causes of such crises in two broad categories: due to food availability decline or food entitlement decline. The occurrence of pests such as locusts, worms, beetles, mice, rats, birds etc. was one of the principal risk-factors in pre-pesticide agriculture. Only a limited number of entries furnishes us with enough information as to be able to address issues of duration, range and location of the recorded crises. The emerging trends show a clear predominance of drought-induced subsistence crises in rural and mixed environments and at the same time an equally evident preponderance of siege-induced famines in urban centres. Famines caused by warfare have a strong presence both in rural and mixed settings, whereas in urban situations famines and shortages tend to develop when the transportation of grain is disrupted.