Five Most Deadly Famines

Introduction
Occurrence of natural disasters are quiet common which can
cause the collateral damage , loss of lives, property, and massive
damage to so many other things. These natural disasters are
because of act of GOD and beyond the limit and power of human
beings. These natural disasters could be in any form like
earthquakes, flooding, famine, hurricane etc. When scarcity of
food occurs at massive level then it is called famine. There are so
many root causes because of which it stems such as less yield of
crop, massive increase in population, polices of government. This
intern causes malnutrition problem, starvation, epidemic diseases
etc. Every continent of the world experiences famine but is very
common in those areas where are large deserts like Africa where
worlds largest Sahara desert is present.
Famine in 20th Century
20th century has experienced deadliest famine across the world in
which more than 70 million people died and 30 million were those
who experienced the famine of China in 1958-1961. There are so
many other worth mentioning famine are also there like 19421945 Bengal faced a famine, china famine 1928 and also in 1942
and also in Russia in 1932-1933 are cases in point.
Other most greatest famine of 20th century include famine faced
in 1960 named as Biafran famine, 1970 famine in Cambodia
remembered as Khmer Rouge, 1990 experienced famine in Korea
and 1984-85 Ethiopia were also in clutches of famine.
Famine which occurred on 23 October 1984 in Ethiopia was the
greatest tragedy in human history for which different charity
shows were conducted by the stars in different cities like London,
Philadelphia to raise the funds. In that famine 900,000 people
died in record time period which has never ever happened in any
other famine.
Five Most Deadly Famines

It is known fact that famine are very dangerous and cause deaths
of millions of people but in history of famines some of them are
also deadly which crossed all the limits. Below is list of those most
deadly famines with brief summary. It has always remained
difficult task to quote the exact number of death recorded in
those famines but best available information is provided.
1. China 1958-62
This famine occurred because of the policies of Mao Zedong like
Great Leap Forward for transforming its nation towards
industrialization on the Soviet model of nationalizing farms
.Because of which farmers have to give major part of their crops
to the government. Mao was quoted as saying in Shanghai in
1959: When there is not enough to eat people starve to death. It
is better to let half of the people die so that the other half can eat
their fill. Corrupt officials were in habit of not giving the due
share of the public to them at most places complete harvest used
to be horded. All of these activities caused famine and still all the
hues and cries of public fell on the deaf ears of the leader of and
led to death of almost 10 to 30 million people in that famine
which lasted from 1958 to 1961.
2. Soviet Union 1921-22
Food shortages were a critical source of social unrest and political
instability during the first year of Soviet power. Through the
course of the civil war, efforts by the Soviet government to
acquire sufficient foodstuffs to support the Red Army and the
urban
population
assumed
massive
proportions.
Food
detachments sent out from the cities were a regular feature of the
"food dictatorship" that was imposed on the peasantry. Even after
the civil war wound down, requisitioning of grain and other food
supplies provoked violent confrontations between Soviet
authorities and peasant producers. One consequence of these
encounters was the reduction of sown area which left little margin
for crop failures. The situation was "ripe" for a devastating
famine. There was massive crop failure which stem from drought
but government of Vladimir Lenin did not realized the severity of
situation which let nine million people of country die because of
this famine.
3. Soviet Union (Ukraine) 1932-34

Industrialization programe of Josef Stalin caused massive famine

in the country because of his policy of seizing the grain for export.
To buy industrial equipment currency was need of the hour and
used grain export in turn of cash. Continuous reports of famine
from Ukrainian citizens fall on his deaf ears and those who used to
report famine also faced his wrath. This famine caused seven to
Eight million people die and it happened in an area once called as
the breadbasket of Europe. In Moscow, Stalin responded to their unyielding
defiance by dictating a policy that would deliberately cause mass
starvation and result in the deaths of millions. By mid 1932,
nearly 75 percent of the farms in the Ukraine had been forcibly
collectivized. On Stalin's orders, mandatory quotas of foodstuffs to
be shipped out to the Soviet Union were drastically increased in
August, October and again in January 1933, until there was simply
no food remaining to feed the people of the Ukraine.
4. North-west China 1927
Drought was root cause of famine but negligence of the warlords
and taxes imposition worsen the situation and lead six million to
hug the death.
5. China (Henan) 1943
When Japan invaded China then Chinese government seized the
grains to feed their troops which let five million people to die.