The famine that began with the Second World War and which extended to many years after the war was a tragic period for the people. The famine lasted through to the First Republic. War caused severe hardship and dislocation the world over. Starvation and famine were experienced in many parts of the world. For a country like the Maldives, with very little arable land, the war situation created intense hardship and shortages. Thus, right down to 1953, the hardship and famine in the country could not be alleviated, especially in the absence of any foreign party that was able to render the necessary assistance. The people in the outer atolls were particularly hard hit. As war began to impose food shortages, food stamps were rationed, reducing supply by half. Even as a fifty percent reduction could not be sustained, a further cut of fifty percent was imposed. In many islands, the unavailability of food meant that people had to resort to eating roots and foliage. Together with the shortage of food, the nation experienced shortages in other items as well. For a lot of people, there was no means to obtain clothing. There were many who had to cover themselves in jute-bags. Women who had no clothes used to spend the daytime in the sea, coming out of the sea only after dark. In reacting to such situations, the government office dealing with food used to assemble the people in Malé and procure clothing and send such clothing to the most hard-pressed atoll at any one time. In order to address the food scarcity, the government conducted programmes to mobilise the people into growing food crops and trees that could be grown in the Maldives. This greening effort did pay off to some extent, however, food scarcity did not ease until after the end of the First Republic.