Yohei Sasakawa of the Nippon Foundation remembers eating rice shipped from the country in the lean years after the war in Japan.

This would enable capital buffers to be created in good years, which could then be drawn down in bad years.

With the lean season (when food is traditionally scarce) now well under way, an increasing number are relying on external food aid.

UNITAR should endeavour to maintain that level to guard against lean periods when funding may drop for various reasons.

The first set of stories appears in the documentary Son Duros Los Días Sin Nada (The Days Without Anything Are Hard), and another film, El Remolino (named after the community), presents a second collection.

Smoking or salting meat of livestock butchered in autumn was a common household strategy to avoid having to feed more animals than necessary during the lean winter months.

She comes back to the market some months later, when prices are highest, in what we call the lean season when food is scarce because she has to feed her family and has no choice.

Then there will come seven years of hardship which will consume the grain you had laid up against them , except a little you may have stored away .

Then after that will come seven hard years which will devour all that you had stored for them , except a little which you may save .

Then thereafter there shall come upon you seven hard years , that shall devour what you have laid up for them , all but a little you keep in store .

Then thereafter will come seven hard years which will devour that which ye have laid up beforehand for them except a little which ye shall preserve .

Then will come after that , seven hard ( years ) , which will devour what you have laid by in advance for them , ( all ) except a little of that which you have guarded ( stored ) .

Then after that will come seven difficult ones , which will consume what you have stored for them , except for the little that you have preserved .

Then there will follow seven years of great hardship in which you will eat up all you have stored earlier , except the little that you may set aside .

Then after that will come seven hard years which will devour all that ye have prepared for them , save a little of that which ye have stored .

Then after that there will come seven hard years which will eat up whatever you have set aside for them all except a little which you preserve for seed .

Thereafter , seven hard years will come upon you , which will consume all but little of that which you have stored .

Then will come after that seven difficult years which will consume what you saved for them , except a little from which you will store .

After this will ensue seven years of famine in which all the grain that you have stored will be consumed except a small quantity .

Then there shall come after that seven years of hardship which shall eat away all that you have beforehand laid up in store for them , except a little of what you shall have preserved

Then there will follow seven years of great hardship which will consume all but a little of what you stored .

Then will come after that ( period ) seven dreadful ( years ) , which will devour what ye shall have laid by in advance for them , ( all ) except a little which ye shall have ( specially ) guarded .

There seems to be little appetite for proposals to vary capital adequacy requirements counter cyclically. This would enable capital buffers to be created in good years, which could then be drawn down in bad years.