Let us start with the basic question as to whether famine is caused by mainly natural factors or human factors.According to the International Encyclopedia of the Social Sciences, 2008 ‘True famine is the shortage of food so extreme and protracted as to result in widespread persisting hunger, notable emaciation in many of the affected population, a considerable increase in community death rate and attributable at least in part to deaths from starvation.The Encyclopedia also points out that the causes of famine are always natural. Even political causes alone cannot cause famine unless they are accompanied by natural causes.