Famine and migration

Abstract

<jats:title>Abstract</jats:title> <jats:p>Famines in both historical and contemporary times have been both a scourge and a significant process in the development of society. Famines are crises where a region or country experiences a prolonged per‐capita decline in food intake which directly and indirectly gives rise to excess death (Alamgir 1978). However, its causes are complex, involving not only drought and ecological degradation (Kumar 1990) but also a complex interaction between food supply, distribution, and demand factors (Ezra 2001). There are theoretical formulations regarding how such stimuli as socioeconomic crises – famines, for instance – produce a range of responses (Ezra 2001). Among demographers the work of Davis 1963, Bongaarts and Cain 1981, and Dyson 1989 has been especially important.</jats:p>