Study On The Causes Of The Food Crisis From Economic And Financial Angle

The present Master’s thesis seeks to develop a better understanding of the roots of food crisis by separating such causes into either financial or economic. An introductory chapter was given to define “food crisis”, the patterns of food crisis in history in three agricultural countries(China, India and Mauritius) and the relationship of food prices and food security with respect to governments and financial markets.To this end, a bottom-up approach was considered by searching for the immediate and subsequent effects of the food crisis on people, governments and financial markets. This would help to differentiate roots from the reactive impacts. A qualitative approach was taken using secondary data to reach a conclusive result. Possible solutions were given with respect to the food crisis through three different types of interventions over the short, medium and long terms.The assessment of food crisis as only of financial or only of economic nature raised certain questions, and resulted in questioning the possible impacts on the current financial and economic system. One cannot separate the different causes as solely financial or economic since they are inter-linked. Recommendations were given for further research in this field.