Houston, July 05: Most of the world’s hunger doesn’t occur in conflicts or natural disasters but is actually driven by seasonal cycle, according to a new research.
The ‘hunger season’ is the time of year when the previous year”s harvest stocks have dwindled, food prices are high, and jobs are scarce, and is often under recognized.
According to the researchers, presently nearly six hundred million people are either members of small farm households or landless rural labourers. They say that many of these people live in areas where water or temperature constraints allow only one crop harvest per year. Their poverty is driven by seasonal cycles, worsening especially in the preharvest months.
In the “hunger season”, household food stocks from the last harvest begin to end; while low production levels, inadequate storage facilities, and accumulated debt all of them force families to sell or consume their agricultural production well before the new harvest.
-Agencies