While sometimes triggered by natural calamities, in the modern world famines persist almost entirely because of war and other human actions that disrupt food production and marketing and prevent timely inflows of relief to the affected areas. Important as famines are, they seldom affect more than 3-4 million people per year. In contrast, chronic hunger and malnutrition, resulting from long-term inadequate food intake and utilization, affect 200 million Africans every year. This food insecurity results from inadequate food availability , poor access to the food by the hungry, poor food utilization , or a combination of these three elements. Food Access, Availability, and Utilization Food availability is the first element that affects hunger.
Food becomes available in a region through local production and regional and international trade.
Thus, efforts to increase agricultural production can be a key element in combating chronic food insecurity. On a global basis, increases in agricultural productivity are essential in order to allow food availability to grow apace with demand, which is driven by population growth and higher incomes. Equally important in Africa are efforts to reduce domestic marketing costs and import barriers as these greatly affect the availability of affordable food to both rural and urban consumers. Thus, projects aimed at providing marketing and processing improvements and a more favorable trade and investment environment for those involved in the food systems contribute to this aspect of food security. Food access refers to whether a person has a socially recognized claim on the available supply of food.