Question

In which year did China face one of the most terrible famines?
A) 1958-1961
B) 2000-2001
C) 2002-2003
D) 1999-2000

Answer 1

Hint: A famine is a period of severe resource scarcity such as food, which is brought on by a variety of circumstances such as warfare, crop failure, population boom, unemployment, unjust government policies and planning. Regional hunger, starvation, epidemics, and premature deaths are commonly characterised by this occurrence.

Complete answer:
The year 1958 saw the onset of the Great Chinese Famine which cost the country a huge number of deaths. The famine occurred for a period of almost five years (1958 to 1962) and was majorly caused due to improper planning by the government and poor agricultural methodologies.

I) Caused by a range of unconventional agricultural policies, societal expectations, financial mismanagement and natural disasters like drought and floods in farming districts of China, this Great Chinese Famine was considered as the most intense famines of all times.
II) About 30 million Chinese citizens died of starvation as a result of this tragedy, and approximately the same proportion of births were either lost or delayed.
III) Great Leap Forward or the Second Five Year Plan was a social and economic programme of the People's Republic of China (PRC) which was supposed to start from the year 1958. Industrialization of agriculture and development of rural areas was the major objective of this plan but it faced some delay as a result of the 1958 Chinese famine.

The correct answer is option (A), as China in the year 1958-1961 faced one of the most terrible famines ever recorded in world history.

Note: Considered as the greatest man-made disasters in human record, the Great Chinese Famine led to numerous numbers of fatalities and deaths, approximately around 50 million, which happened due to starvation and unavailability of food. After this disaster, a study was conducted to understand the effects of this famine and thus, it was analysed that the root causes of this famine was 30% natural and 50% due to the effects of human carelessness.