Hunger in Nepal: A looming humanitarian crisis
By Yuba Nath Lamsal
Even as politicians and political parties are scrambling to grab or retain power in Nepal, the country has seemingly fallen into a trap of worst humanitarian crisis. Around four million Nepalese, more than 10 per cent of the country population, are poised to suffer from history’s worst hunger this year. But this issue has never figure in the agenda of parties and the government.
Once food surplus state, Nepal has turned into a food deficit country. The food crisis looms every year in Nepal especially in the remote northern Himalayan and mountainous districts as the food grown in these areas is not sufficient to feed the population even for six months. The situation gets worse as food supplied from urban areas is often inadequate. The problem becomes further acute when the transportation system is disrupted for various reasons.
While the remote districts are hit hard by unavailability of adequate food, the people in the urban areas suffer from ever increasing price of food items. In the last one year alone, the food price rose by almost 60 per cent in urban areas of Nepal. But the farmers who grow food often complain that they do not get reasonable price of their products. Here lies the irony; both the producers and consumers are cheated while the middlepersons are taking the most benefit.
A recent government report on food balance sheet has revealed a precarious situation in Nepal. The report says that 40 percent of the population in the Himalayan and mountainous districts are suffering from a severe food crisis, which accounts to close to four million people. The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, which prepared and released the reports, states that 42 out of 75 districts bear the brunt of endemic hunger. There is no other mechanism to verify these statistics in the absence of independent survey. But the population suffering from hunger in Nepal could go well higher than the government’s estimates.
The situation is expected to worsen this year as the rice production fell sharply due to adverse weather condition last year. The wheat output is also expected to decline this year. Moreover, India, a main source of food import in Nepal, has applied stricter measures in the export of food items mainly wheat and rice.
This situation has arrived as the governments in the past failed to assess the looming risk of hunger in Nepal. Even after the problem surfaced so visibly the government still seems to have turned a deaf ear to the call for a concrete plan and programme to address and mitigate the problem.
Nepal is an agricultural country and the contribution of agriculture to national GDP is more than two thirds. But agriculture in Nepal is poor people’s occupation and is in dire state. The agriculture is the area where optimum focus should be laid to eradicate poverty. However, policies, programmes and priorities for agriculture are confined to papers and politicians’ rhetoric but have never seen the light of the day. Agriculture is the business of the people, who have no access to planning and execution of plans, whereas elite planners and bureaucrats know little about agriculture and needs and problems of the food growers or farmers. There is a wide gap between plans and needs and between the programmes and priorities. As a result, the plans hardly address the farmers’ issues and raise farm productivity. This is the fundamental issue that has put the agriculture in shambles and made food security vulnerable. The problem is likely to worsen in future as the declining soil fertility due to environmental degradation would cause low farm production and productivity. The climate change is visible globally that has been a cause of big concern in the world. Nepal may not be spared from its global onslaught of climate change. Some symptoms of climate change have already been seen. The pattern of weather has changed. Last year saw a low rainfall during monsoon. Quite unusually, Nepal did not witness winter rain this year which is, perhaps, first time in history. Experts have attributed it to the pattern of climate change. The drought has already spoiled the winter crop like wheat and others. If this pattern continued, Nepal’s agriculture would be in trouble.
Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world with more than one-thirds of people living absolute poverty living in less than one dollar a day. All the successive governments in the pasts focused much of their programmes for poverty alleviation. But not much has changed in the overall condition of the absolute poor in Nepal. In percentage wise, the poverty seems to have declined. But if we count the heads, the number of poor people has increased every year. Two decades ago, the population below poverty line was 42 per cent. During that period the population was 20 million, which meant the number of poor people then 8 million. Now the government claims that poverty has come down to 32 per cent. But population has increased to almost 30 million that means the 9.6 million people are now absolute poor. The unprecedented rise in food prices is likely to further aggravate the crisis and push more people into the vicious cycle of poverty.
This is because the base of our economy—agriculture— has not been improved, which has caused increase in poverty, vulnerability of food insecurity and hunger. Nepal has also made a commitment in the United Nations to improve the conditions of its people by 2015 in accordance with the standard set in Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As per the MDGs, poverty has to be halved. But poverty is on the rising trend instead of receding if we calculate in number. Similarly, other goals related to health are also less likely to be met. The fundamental issue of the human being is the life and survival. Given the trend of food insecurity and hunger, the very survival of a large number of people is under threat, what to talk of developments and poverty eradication. But the politicians, planners and policy makers still seem to have not to have understood the gravity of the problem. Unless the agriculture sector is improved, condition of poor farmers cannot be lifted. Unless the condition of poor farmers is improved, poverty cannot be reduced. Food security is also linked with the condition of condition of farmers and agriculture.
The economic growth or adequate production alone do not guarantee food security, eradication of hunger and poverty alleviation. What is needed is the just, equitable and judicial distribution of wealth and accessibility of food, resources and opportunities for poor people. But Nepal is long way to go to attain this goal. Nepal has still not woken up to address this humanitarian crisis and has depended largely on donors’ largesse. It is now high time that Nepal has to come up with its own plan to avert hunger and food insecurity because food is the fundamental right of the people.
Even as politicians and political parties are scrambling to grab or retain power in Nepal, the country has seemingly fallen into a trap of worst humanitarian crisis. Around four million Nepalese, more than 10 per cent of the country population, are poised to suffer from history’s worst hunger this year. But this issue has never figure in the agenda of parties and the government.
Once food surplus state, Nepal has turned into a food deficit country. The food crisis looms every year in Nepal especially in the remote northern Himalayan and mountainous districts as the food grown in these areas is not sufficient to feed the population even for six months. The situation gets worse as food supplied from urban areas is often inadequate. The problem becomes further acute when the transportation system is disrupted for various reasons.
While the remote districts are hit hard by unavailability of adequate food, the people in the urban areas suffer from ever increasing price of food items. In the last one year alone, the food price rose by almost 60 per cent in urban areas of Nepal. But the farmers who grow food often complain that they do not get reasonable price of their products. Here lies the irony; both the producers and consumers are cheated while the middlepersons are taking the most benefit.
A recent government report on food balance sheet has revealed a precarious situation in Nepal. The report says that 40 percent of the population in the Himalayan and mountainous districts are suffering from a severe food crisis, which accounts to close to four million people. The Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives, which prepared and released the reports, states that 42 out of 75 districts bear the brunt of endemic hunger. There is no other mechanism to verify these statistics in the absence of independent survey. But the population suffering from hunger in Nepal could go well higher than the government’s estimates.
The situation is expected to worsen this year as the rice production fell sharply due to adverse weather condition last year. The wheat output is also expected to decline this year. Moreover, India, a main source of food import in Nepal, has applied stricter measures in the export of food items mainly wheat and rice.
This situation has arrived as the governments in the past failed to assess the looming risk of hunger in Nepal. Even after the problem surfaced so visibly the government still seems to have turned a deaf ear to the call for a concrete plan and programme to address and mitigate the problem.
Nepal is an agricultural country and the contribution of agriculture to national GDP is more than two thirds. But agriculture in Nepal is poor people’s occupation and is in dire state. The agriculture is the area where optimum focus should be laid to eradicate poverty. However, policies, programmes and priorities for agriculture are confined to papers and politicians’ rhetoric but have never seen the light of the day. Agriculture is the business of the people, who have no access to planning and execution of plans, whereas elite planners and bureaucrats know little about agriculture and needs and problems of the food growers or farmers. There is a wide gap between plans and needs and between the programmes and priorities. As a result, the plans hardly address the farmers’ issues and raise farm productivity. This is the fundamental issue that has put the agriculture in shambles and made food security vulnerable. The problem is likely to worsen in future as the declining soil fertility due to environmental degradation would cause low farm production and productivity. The climate change is visible globally that has been a cause of big concern in the world. Nepal may not be spared from its global onslaught of climate change. Some symptoms of climate change have already been seen. The pattern of weather has changed. Last year saw a low rainfall during monsoon. Quite unusually, Nepal did not witness winter rain this year which is, perhaps, first time in history. Experts have attributed it to the pattern of climate change. The drought has already spoiled the winter crop like wheat and others. If this pattern continued, Nepal’s agriculture would be in trouble.
Nepal is one of the poorest countries in the world with more than one-thirds of people living absolute poverty living in less than one dollar a day. All the successive governments in the pasts focused much of their programmes for poverty alleviation. But not much has changed in the overall condition of the absolute poor in Nepal. In percentage wise, the poverty seems to have declined. But if we count the heads, the number of poor people has increased every year. Two decades ago, the population below poverty line was 42 per cent. During that period the population was 20 million, which meant the number of poor people then 8 million. Now the government claims that poverty has come down to 32 per cent. But population has increased to almost 30 million that means the 9.6 million people are now absolute poor. The unprecedented rise in food prices is likely to further aggravate the crisis and push more people into the vicious cycle of poverty.
This is because the base of our economy—agriculture— has not been improved, which has caused increase in poverty, vulnerability of food insecurity and hunger. Nepal has also made a commitment in the United Nations to improve the conditions of its people by 2015 in accordance with the standard set in Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). As per the MDGs, poverty has to be halved. But poverty is on the rising trend instead of receding if we calculate in number. Similarly, other goals related to health are also less likely to be met. The fundamental issue of the human being is the life and survival. Given the trend of food insecurity and hunger, the very survival of a large number of people is under threat, what to talk of developments and poverty eradication. But the politicians, planners and policy makers still seem to have not to have understood the gravity of the problem. Unless the agriculture sector is improved, condition of poor farmers cannot be lifted. Unless the condition of poor farmers is improved, poverty cannot be reduced. Food security is also linked with the condition of condition of farmers and agriculture.
The economic growth or adequate production alone do not guarantee food security, eradication of hunger and poverty alleviation. What is needed is the just, equitable and judicial distribution of wealth and accessibility of food, resources and opportunities for poor people. But Nepal is long way to go to attain this goal. Nepal has still not woken up to address this humanitarian crisis and has depended largely on donors’ largesse. It is now high time that Nepal has to come up with its own plan to avert hunger and food insecurity because food is the fundamental right of the people.
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