The continent I chose was Africa, because there is a lot of food shortages there. I also chose Africa because I knew that I could obtain many resources from books and shows on hunger in Africa. This country I chose within Africa, was Ethiopia. I chose it because it is a prominent, low-income, third world country. .
Ethiopia is the tenth largest country in Africa. It is 1,133,380sq km., which is evidently smaller compared to Canada. Its population of 58,506,000 peoples mainly causes Ethiopia's hunger problem. Ethiopia's population density is 52 people for every square kilometer. In comparison, Canada has 1 person for every square kilometer. .
Ethiopians are mainly farmers who grow crops for export. They also have large gardens to feed themselves. Being a farmer in Ethiopia is hard work, because it requires field harvesting. Their crops are sometimes overcome by drought, longing for rain. The season of rain is not particularly great either. It can cause erosion, which washes the soil away. The living conditions are worsened by the fact that the average temperature is 27 degrees Celsius. .
Ethiopians, along with most people in Africa, have large families because they know that most of the children will die before the age of ten. They want at least one male to carry on their family name. These large families contribute to hunger problem because the parents do not have the resources to feed all the children. The family gardens supply food, but usually not enough. Another problem existing with large families is that the parents and the children endure emotional suffering when one of the family members die.
Water is an extreme problem in Ethiopia, and mainly all over Africa. Sometimes it may not rain for well over a month. This leaves people going to wells or rivers to get water, which also dry up pretty quickly. Since there are a lot of mountains in Ethiopia, most people have rivers close by them. There are others that rely exclusively on wells.