insufficient

This term carries a cold, clinical tone often found in official reports, legal documents, or financial audits. It describes a gap between what is available and what is required, focusing on a failure to meet a threshold rather than a general feeling of scarcity. While "poor" might describe quality and "few" describes quantity, "insufficient" specifically targets the inability of a resource to fulfill its intended purpose. It suggests a state of deficiency that prevents a goal from being achieved.