Some one billion people may be at risk of hunger, although estimates vary widely. Countries such as Ethiopia, Somalia, Mali, and Haiti are the least food-secure, in marked contrast to developed countries, the newly industrialising countries of Southeast Asia, and most of Latin America. Such chronic food insecurity can evolve into a food crisis or, if not controlled, a famine. The key cause of hardship is the persistence of a food shortage over a number of years. Increasingly, it seems that many of Africa's poor are unable to recover fully from one crisis before the next one is upon them.
Effective policies can minimise the climate's impact on food security.
Key policies include maintaining the productivity of the land and other agricultural assets, diversifying income sources to prevent total dependence on one or two crops, setting aside strategic reserves in good years, and motivating farmers with good market prices and other production incentives. If disaster looms despite such efforts, people will be forced to cut back dramatically on eating, sell their possessions, and migrate. Unfortunately, disaster relief efforts in developing countries have not been encouraging. Civil strife, as in Somalia, or the sheer size of the imminent disaster, as in Bangladesh after its 1991 cyclone, too often render emergency services ineffective. Strategies for coping with climatic extremes may be relevant to future strategies for adapting to climate change.