The Indian Famine Codes, developed by the colonial British in the 1880s, were one of the earliest
famine scales.
Types of Food insecurity
The Famine Codes established three levels of
food insecurity
Food security is the state of having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, healthy food. The availability of food for people of any class, gender, ethnicity, or religion is another element of food protection. Similarly, househo ...
: near-scarcity, scarcity, and
famine
A famine is a widespread scarcity of food caused by several possible factors, including, but not limited to war, natural disasters, crop failure, widespread poverty, an Financial crisis, economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenom ...
. "Scarcity" was defined as three successive years of
crop failure
Harvesting is the process of collecting plants, animals, or fish (as well as fungi) as food, especially the process of gathering mature crops, and "the harvest" also refers to the collected crops. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulses fo ...
,
crop yield
In agriculture, the yield is a measurement of the amount of a crop grown, or product such as wool, meat or milk produced, per unit area of land. The seed ratio is another way of calculating yields.
Innovations, such as the use of fertilizer, the ...
s reaching one-third or one-half of the normal levels, and significant population distress. "Famine" included additional criteria such as a surge in
food prices
Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale. Food prices affect producers and consumers of food. Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing and food di ...
exceeding 140% of the "normal" value, mass migration of people in search of food, and widespread mortality.
Indian Famine Commission
To address the issue of famine in India, an Indian Famine Commission was established to develop strategies for prevention and mitigation.
In 1880, the commission's secretary drafted the Indian Famine Code, which served as the cornerstone of famine prevention measures until the 1970s. Subsequent famine codes were developed, such as the Indian Famine Code (Bihar), which shared similar principles with the original code and served as a foundation for multiple famine codes and scales. These codes and scales aimed to assess the severity and magnitude of famine.
[ Summary of published research: ] The Indian Famine Code was among the earliest attempts to forecast and subsequently prevent famine by implementing specific steps and interventions mandated for governments to mitigate the risks associated with food scarcity.
[{{cite encyclopedia , title=Historical responses to famine , url=http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/201392/famine/277562/ , encyclopedia=Encyclopædia Britannica Online , access-date=8 October 2009]
References
1880s in India
1880s in British India