Food security, food aid and soil erosion Cambridge IGCSE Geography revision
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In plain words
Food security means knowing where your next meal is coming from, today and next year. For much of the world that is never in doubt. For the rest, a failed rain, a war or a rise in price can take it away.
8 things to know
- Food security is when all people, at all times, have access to enough safe and nutritious food.
- Natural factors that reduce food supply: drought, floods, pests and plant diseases, and poor soils.
- Human factors: war, which drives farmers from their land; poverty; lack of investment and technology; land used for cash crops; and rising food prices.
- Problems of food insecurity: undernutrition and malnutrition, with diseases caused by lack of protein and vitamins; famine; people too weak to work or learn; migration; and conflict.
- Ways to increase food supply: irrigation, fertilisers, high-yielding and drought-resistant seeds, machinery, better storage, and appropriate technology that farmers can afford.
- Food aid saves lives in an emergency. But free food can lower prices for local farmers, create dependency, and fail to reach those who need it. Long-term help to grow more is more sustainable.
- Desertification is the turning of productive land into desert. Its causes: overgrazing, overcultivation, cutting trees for fuel, and drought. Bare soil is then blown or washed away.
- Management: planting trees as shelter belts; lines of stones along the contours to trap water and soil; terracing; crop rotation; and keeping fewer animals.
Worked example
Farmers on the edge of a desert lay lines of stones across their fields. Explain how this helps.
- The stones are laid along the contours, across the slope.
- When rain falls, water running downhill is slowed and held behind the stones, so it soaks in.
- Soil carried by the water is trapped, and crops have more water and deeper soil.
- It is cheap, uses local materials and can be done by the farmers themselves, so it is sustainable.
Tips and tricks
- Evaluating food aid: it is essential in an emergency, but it is not a long-term answer.
- Desertification has human causes as well as drought. Overgrazing, overcultivation and deforestation are the three to name.
It lands in your notebook with its questions as flashcards.
Food security, food aid and soil erosion: 6 questions and answers
These are the quiz’s questions. Do the quiz first, then come back here for the ones that got you.
What is food security?
For all people, at all times.
Which is a natural factor that reduces food supply?
The others are human factors.
What is desertification?
Soil is degraded and lost.
Which is a cause of desertification?
Too many animals strip the vegetation that protects the soil.
What is a weakness of long-term food aid?
Free food lowers the price local farmers can charge.
How do lines of stones along contours help farmers in dry areas?
Rainwater soaks in and soil stays on the field.
Quiz
6 questions
Tap an answer and you’ll see straight away whether it’s right, and why.
Worksheet
4 questions, 12 marks. Write your answers on paper, then check them.
Food security, food aid and soil erosion
Cambridge IGCSE Geography 0460 · 12 marks · papermunch.org
Name ______________________________ Date ______________
Define food security.[2]
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When all people, at all times, have access to enough safe and nutritious food for a healthy life.
Explain two human factors that can cause food shortages.[4]
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War: farmers are forced to leave their land, and food cannot be transported. Poverty: people cannot afford to buy food, or the seeds and fertiliser to grow it.
Describe two strategies used to reduce soil erosion and desertification.[4]
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Planting trees: roots hold the soil and the trees shelter it from wind. Stone lines along the contours: they trap soil and water that would run off.
Give one advantage and one disadvantage of food aid.[2]
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Advantage: it saves lives in an emergency. Disadvantage: it can make people dependent, or reduce the prices local farmers receive.
Answers: Food security, food aid and soil erosion
- 1. When all people, at all times, have access to enough safe and nutritious food for a healthy life.
- 2. War: farmers are forced to leave their land, and food cannot be transported. Poverty: people cannot afford to buy food, or the seeds and fertiliser to grow it.
- 3. Planting trees: roots hold the soil and the trees shelter it from wind. Stone lines along the contours: they trap soil and water that would run off.
- 4. Advantage: it saves lives in an emergency. Disadvantage: it can make people dependent, or reduce the prices local farmers receive.