Widespread harvest failure resulted in the most serious famine for more than a hundred years, doubling the price of grain and spawning bread riots and widespreadcivil unrest.
If similar weather patterns continue, Obote fears his family might experience serious famine, a scenario agriculturalist have confirmed is a possibility.
Amartya Sen, a Harvard economist, argued that there has never been a serious famine in a country -- even an impoverished one -- with a democratic government and a free press.
The failure of the Great Leap amid serious famine encouraged his critics to speak out, and led in turn to the Cultural Revolution (1966-76) when he sought to crush their "revisionism".
"Without a further substantial increase in food-aid pledges, we will be risking serious famine and many deaths in these worst-affected African countries," the organization's Assistant Director General for Economic and Social Policy, B. P. Dutia, said.
What has pushed them this far is a combination of severe economic and social strains in the North, including serious famine and energy shortages, and a new recognition by the South that its own security would be endangered by a sudden breakdown of authority in North Korea.
