I'd like to, uh, review some of the issues in, famine, and food security in Af_ in Africa.
Famine, is something which, has a very emotive, appeal, to westerners.
It's something which hasn't happened in Europe for, several hundred years now.
But it lingers in the background, overt conscious.
But, famine, in Africa, is something, which, which still exists, in many parts.
And I'm talking more about the drier regions.
Where production_ where agriculture production is very dependent on the, on the fickle rains.
Whether these come or not.
An important point I'd like to get over, is the fact that, the people who, live in these regions, are fully aware of this.
And that, they have agency.
They're_ are able to cope.
They don't, sit, down and wait, and die.
As perh_ is perhaps portrayed in some of the images, which have come out of Africa.
So... looking at, the agricultural production, the cycle, it is important to see, agriculture, not as a way of life.
But, as a performance and how, it is so finely tuned to the, to the r_ the rains.
With the first rains, whenever they come.
There is no fixed date.
Their_ the fields are sowed.
And then, how, the mixture of crops planted in the field, is adjusted.
The, the inputs of labour are made throughout the season.
Depending on the rains, people will_ the production is, is, tu_ is, is as much as they're able to draw on labour resources.
And, and their health is strong and, and, other conditions apply.
And they're able to, to act, on the c- rainfall conditions, in their production.
Now when a, when a famine_ when a drought, I should say, comes along.
A drought does not necessarily mean famine at all.
Um, and there are definitely cases, when famines have occurred without drought, with agricultural production in abundance.
And there have been cases in Ethiopia of that.
Where analysis will show that, food was widely available, but, people weren't able to access it, because they didn't have money, or for whatever reasons, a war, or whatever.
But in a situation, where, the rains don't come.
How do people adjust.
Well, every year, people_ there are groups of people.
The poorer people, whose production, from the previous year, whether because they have so_ have had, bad luck.
Whether their holdings aren't sufficient.
Whether_ whatever reasons they haven't produced enough.
And there's what is called a hungry season or a_ in the French [xx], period.
Before the rains, when their, production from the year before is, is running low.
But at the same time there's, there's always, um, the wealthy people who, have had a good production.
And, looking at these, these uh, people, who on a year, year in year out basis, experience seasonal food shortage.
There's an instructive of, uh, of way, of seeing how, a famine situation will, will, will take over.
Now, there's a_ there's a_ people_ there's a lot of options out there.
I mean, living_ uncertainties are normal in the region.
An- and people, have a variety of ways of, adapting to that.
They may go out and, and collect wild berries or, or sell some assets, particularly livestock.
Um, or, they ma_ they move out of the region, temporarily.
And seek work in, in cities, or something.
Um, they may seek loans, from friends.
Or, seek work, from the wealthier people in the village.
Now... when this happens_ starts to happen on, on a bigger scale.
The whole region is affected.
Those sources, which, these people rely on every year, become harder to find.
Everyone's out there looking for berries.
Everyone's in the cities, looking for, for work.
People, de-capitalise, a lot of their resources.
They sell they_ their, their animals.
People_ there is, an idea, that there is, uh, progresses as a_ sorry.
There's an idea that, what people do has kind of, a linear_ and a pattern to it.
People will first of all seek uh, seek um, fo_ wild foods, and they'll seek, um, loans, and then they'll sell their resources.
And, eventually, if it gets too bad, they will sell, their farm, or their means of production.
They'll sell their ploughs or, when th_ all the, uh, seed reserves.
And, and the ability to re- to return, after the famine event is over, is harder.
Whether, those strategies are employed in such a, a linear way, is, is debatable.
And, I would argue that it's not.
But, it's important to see that every, person's situation is different.
Whether they have, access to, friends, social networks, which they can borrow money from.
People_ there's winners and losers in famine situations.
There's people who do well.
Who's buying the land, who's buying those assets at that time.
Those people, people are doing well.
But... It is_ yeah, it is important to, to look at, not necessarily just famine.
Famine is, is the crisis which is, focused on by the media.
The images of... Of... S- skinny, starving people, in refugees' camps, just waiting for food.
Is the only thing that would jog the, the western, attention, to get aid.
But, you have to look beyond that to, more normal times.
When, there is, a section of society, often quite large, who have been able_ unable to recover from the last famine event.
Who now, perhaps are landless.
Or, have lost their herds.
And now, in forms of, production where they're, reliant on someone else.
They're reliant on those people who did well from, from the last famine.
They're now, in a different form of relationship.
And the thing is, after a famine, the conditions are not going to return to a- as they were before.
And this is ve_ an important fact, to bare in mind.
But, perhaps above all, is the fact that, people, live, with this situation.
Uncertainty is the norm in their lifestyles.
But, they have an ability, within re_ within dis_ within constraints, to, to, to, find their own livelihoods.
And they're not just passive victims and that perhaps is, is the point of this.