The Indian Famine Codes, developed by the colonial British in the 1880s, were one of the earliest

famine scale Famine scales are the ways in which degrees of food security are measured, from situations in which an entire population has adequate food to full-scale famine. The word "famine" has highly emotive and political connotations and there has been exte ...

Types of Food insecurity

The Famine Codes defined three levels of

food insecurity Food security speaks to the availability of food in a country (or geography) and the ability of individuals within that country (geography) to access, afford, and source adequate foodstuffs. According to the United Nations' Committee on World ...

: near-scarcity, scarcity, and

famine A famine is a widespread scarcity of food, caused by several factors including war, natural disasters, crop failure, population imbalance, widespread poverty, an economic catastrophe or government policies. This phenomenon is usually accompan ...

. "Scarcity" was defined as three successive years of

crop failure Harvesting is the process of gathering a ripe crop from the fields. Reaping is the cutting of grain or pulse for harvest, typically using a scythe, sickle, or reaper. On smaller farms with minimal mechanization, harvesting is the most labor- ...

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 c ...

s of one-third or one-half normal, and large populations in distress. "Famine" further included a rise in

food prices Food prices refer to the average price level for food across countries, regions and on a global scale. Food prices have an impact on producers and consumers of food. Price levels depend on the food production process, including food marketing ...

to above 140% of "normal", the movement of people in search of food, and widespread mortality.

Indian Famine Commission

In order to address the issues of famine in India they created an Indian Famine commission to create ways to prevent and avoid future famine in India. So in 1880, the secretary of commission wrote a draft of the Indian Famine Code. This famine code became the basis of famine prevention until the 1970s. More famine codes were created after the Indian Famine Codes (Bihar) but they addressed similar ideas that the Indian one did, the Indian Famine code was the foundation of multiple famine codes/ scales. Famine codes and scales measure the intensity and magnitude of the famine. Summary of published research: This famine code was one of the first attempts to predict famine, and by predicting it, prevent it. The codes classified food scarcity on a scale of intensity and had steps that governments were required to take to mitigate the risk of famine.{{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