A household food security survey, which was conducted by the Ministry of Agricultural Development (MoAD) between May 8 and May 20 in 11 quake-affected districts, revealed that granaries of quake-hit families have been buried, their economic activities have been affected, and that they have no access to food. The survey report shows that around 240,000 people are in severe food-insecure situation.
The report titled 'A Report on Food Security Impact of the 2015 Earthquake' states: "Food security situation has deteriorated across much of the affected areas, with significant damage to household food stocks and fall in income and reliance on food assistance remains high."MoAD plans to unveil the report in the near future.
The survey was carried out on around 1,000 households in the affected areas. According to the report, 70 percent of the surveyed households reported partial or a total loss of their food stock space.
The report has recommended to the government to scale of humanitarian assistance to ensure stable food security conditions in the affected areas.
Hemaraj Regmi, senior statistician at MoAD, said that people in highly food-insecure situation are in need of food aid. "Government should ensure that they get food commodities for at least three months," he said, adding that the report has also suggested to the government to open blocked roads, restore supply chain, ensure market access, and provide support to people, mostly farmers, to start economic activities.
"Livelihoods, especially daily agricultural and non-agricultural labor, have been severely affected, with income loss of over 75 percent reported in several areas," the report reads.
According to the report, overall household expenses decreased by an average of 13 percent.
The government, so far, has supplied 4,000 tons of food grains from its stock to different affected districts. Similarly, different NGOs, INGOs, charity organizations and also in individuals are supply food grains in quake-hit districts.
The study was carried out in coordination with Nepal Food Security Monitoring System (NeKSAP) with technical support from the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and the Food Security Cluster.
Not only food grains, paddy and maize seeds as well as essential agricultural tools are buried in debris in quake-hit districts.
"Affected people's expense on food specifically has been particularly affected, which explains why food consumption and diet diversity have dropped," the report states, adding, "Per capita food expenses decreased by 17 percent, possibly as families shifted spending toward house reconstruction."
According to the report, 70 percent of surveyed households are engaged in crop production, 25 percent used irrigation facility, and 27 percent reported severe damage in irrigation infrastructure.
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