Egypt: Problems With Food Production

Garrett Dempsey

Problems With Food Production

Figure 1

Limited Global food production is a significant issue many countries face today. A large contributor to limited food production was The Green Revolution which turned farming into a battle to keep up with the rising population. As the population has continued to grow four main issues associated with limited global food production have become clear.

1) The first of these being local and regional problems. Due to wide spread poverty the demand for food has increased, but the lower class cannot afford it. With the poverty level of some regions people are unable to afford to produce or consume the food that is in the area.

 2) Secondly there are political problems associated with natural disasters. When a natural disaster occurs and food aid is sent to the area of need the food is not actually going to the people, but in turn the food is being distributed to allies for political reasons.

3) The next problem is globalization which occurs when more people are turning to globalized fast food other than their local and cultural foods. From this farmers are unable to sell their crops or animals to local business because the demand for them has declined.  

4) Lastly there are regions of the world that suffer the most with food shortages such as sub-Saharan Africa. Out of the 856 million of sub-Saharan Africa’s people more than one in four are undernourished making it the world’s most impacted area with food shortages (the guardian).  

Egyptian agricultural land is being lost to urbanization and weather torn lands. They face natural occurrences such as droughts; frequent earthquakes, flash floods, landslides, and sandstorms. In 2011 Egypt lost more 11,736 hectares of agricultural land from these natural disasters (irinnews).Egypt also faces problem with supplying fresh water to its farmers which make up 32 percent of the labor force. This has forced people to center around the Nile which is the only source of fresh water in the area. The Nile has become very densely populated and is causing a strain on the resources it provides (Mongabay).

Works cited

"EGYPT: Desertification Threat to Local Food Production." IRINnews. IRIN News, n.d. Web. 02 Dec. 2014.

"Egypt." Forest Data: Deforestation Rates and Related Forestry Figures. Mongabay, n.d. Web. 03 Dec. 2014.

Smith, David. "Sub-Saharan Africa Can Only Grow If It Solves Hunger Crisis – UNDP." Theguardian. The Guardian, 15 May 2012. Web. 3 Dec. 2014.

Figure 1- http://egyptianstreets.com/2014/05/08/apocalyptic-like-sandstorm-engulfs-egypts-aswan/