Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
Food Shortage in SOUTH ASIA
Linda Lin
What’s going on?? The price of rice in many parts of South Asia is rising fast
Last week Afghanistan appealed for foreign help to combat a wheat shortage while Bangladesh recently warned it faced a crisis over rice supplies.
“There have been queues outside shops in towns around Pakistan, and flour prices have shot up. “
---Global wheat prices are at record highs.
People across South Asia are struggling to cope with a severe shortage of affordable wheat and rice.
Why is it happening?
-Decrease in supply
Afghanistan does not grow enough wheat to feed all its people and is partially dependent on imports.
Pakistan's gov. blames distribution problems. says no shortage.
Officials accuse suppliers in Punjab, the breadbasket of Pakistan, of smuggling wheat intended for domestic use to Afghanistan and Central Asia to take advantage of price differences.
Damage caused by heavy monsoon rain.
The BBC 's M Ilyas Khan in Karachi says that the Pakistani gov. buys wheat in bulk at the time of harvesting, and then releases stocks to flour mills according to a pre-determined quota.
Quantity of Grain (kg)
Pric
e of
Gra
in (
$)
D1
S1
E1
S2
E2
-Increase in demand
1. Riots Flour ran short in Pakistan when many areas saw rioting
after the assassination of opposition leader Benazir Bhutto in late December.
2. Population Population is STILL GROWING. And the growth of popul
ation is much faster than the growth of the amount of food produced.
The planned quota cannot meet the growing demands.
Quantity
D2
S1
E1
S2
E3
E2
D1
Quantity of Grain (kg)
Pric
e of
Gra
in (
$)
Actions- going to/ought to be done
The governments now says it has increased the quota allocated to the mills, warning them of penalties if they are found selling flour at prices higher than fixed by the government.
Rice in Bangladesh is having to be imported (Photo: Daily Star)
Don’t know yet what would happen next, but most possibly, the price of foods will just keep on increasing for a while before it drops.
THANKS
Bibliography
Original article: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7178876.stm
http://ilib.cn/A-ISSN~1004-1508(2001)02-0023-04.html
http://www.populstat.info/Asia/asia.html
