famine vs deficiency

famine and deficiency both are nouns.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
famine	Yes	No	No	No
deficiency	Yes	No	No	No

As nouns, deficiency is a hypernym of famine; that is, deficiency is a word with a broader meaning than famine:

Other hypernyms of famine include lack, want.

famine (noun)	deficiency (noun)
a severe shortage of food (as through crop failure) resulting in violent hunger and starvation and death	lack of an adequate quantity or number
an acute insufficiency	the state of needing something that is absent or unavailable