Earthquake effect
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SINDHUPALCHOWK, 20 Jan: Rice and other food grains were never a matter of worry for the sixty-nine year old Birbahadur Tamang's huge family. Rice, wheat, maize and other grains cultivated in their ancestral land would well suffice for the family for over a year. But the April 25 changed this all when it made the family homeless. As it could not engage in regular farming, it does not have food grains to eat.
"We had cultivated some maize before the earthquake. That has been harvested. It'll last for three months," said Birbahardur of Tapte village, who lives with his two sons and grandchildren in a makeshift shelter now. "But how are we going to survive the remaining nine months?" he wondered out loud.
Birbahadur had five cowsheds and two small houses until before the earthquake. The family totally dependent on agriculture was happy and satisfied. The disaster killed one of his grandchildren and few relatives. "I had never imagined that I would see such days in my life," he lamented.
Despite bearing such losses by the quake, he has been deprived of identification as a quake victim. In lack of quake victim identity card, he has deprived of government and non-government relief that necessities producing quake victims identity card. "When the VDC secretary was here to distribute the card I was bed ridden due to high fever. After recovering I approached him several times, but he declined to provide me one," he said.
Fifty - five year old Indrabahadur Thapa of Ballang village is also restless due to looming food crisis. Unlike Birbahadur, he had cultivated rice and millet even after the earthquake. However, he could not save them all from wild animals. "Monkeys ate them all. There are rats to add to the trouble. And on top of that I fear that whatever I have been able to save, would rot due to cold and dew," Thapa said. "I worked hard on my farms. And whatever I have been able to reap out of it does not seems to sustain my family even three months," he shared.
Many quake affected families in this one of the worst quake affected districts, like Indrabahadur and Birbahadur, are worried about the looming food crisis. There are settlements of quake victims in every village and worry for food for the year ahead is common among them. They claim that lack of seed and fertilizer post-earthquake have left them helpless. Even those who somehow managed to cultivate grains are extremely worried on ways to protecting it from wild beasts, rats, and cold and dew. Lack of proper storage has added to their woes Indrabahadur said.
Hikmat Bahadur Shrestha, senior Agriculture Development Officer stated that the production of maize, rice and millet has significantly dropped this year. "It's going to invite food crisis" he said. "The earthquake victims, most of who are farmers, are extremely worried," he said adding that food production in the district has gone down significantly this year.
According to District Agriculture Office, farmers in Sindhupalchowk this year cultivated only in 47,474 hectare of land out of the available 73,710 hectare arable land. This is 40 percent less than the usual cultivation average in the district and it's going to deepen food crisis, the office stated. "Farmers were hit by earthquake. They were rendered homeless. They lost their cattle. It was difficult to farm as usual," said Shrestha. "Some still tried. However, seeds and fertilizers could not be distributed on time. All this affected the food production," he said.
Shrestha further added that along with reduction in the cultivation, production per hectare has also gone down this year. "Landslides, cracks on the land etc affected the production," he said.
This time, the farmers are consuming fresh grains as they had no choice. Or else, they would keep it in store for some time, Shrestha said. He further informed that the earthquake this year destroyed over 1,326,000 metric ton of food grain across the country incurring loss of two billion rupees.
Though most of the families in the district are involved in agriculture, the district used to bring food grains from other parts of the country, prior to the quake also. Now due to the earthquake and landslides, farmers have been further hit, states DAO adding that strategic vegetable farming could bring things to balance. Shrestha stressed on government's intervention for preventing food crisis in the district.
