The country is enjoying food surplus despite drop in production of staple crops by around 3.1 percent this year, a report titled 'Preliminary Estimate on Food Need and Availability in Nepal' unveiled on Wednesday shows.The surplus, however, is the lowest in the past three years. The country had enjoyed food surplus of 943,100 tons, 408,400 tons and 789,000 tons in 2011/12, 2012/13 and 2013/14, respectively.
"Nepal was self-sufficient on food in 2014/15," Uday Chandra Thakur, spokesperson of MoAD, told Republica, adding "The production of consumable food stood at 5.5 million tons in 2014/15, while the food needed for total population was only 5.34 million tons. This clearly shows that we are in a food surplus situation."
Despite this, Thakur said 32 districts will face food deficit next year due to low production. According to the report, 32 different districts will see deficit of 974,600 tons of food in 2015/16.
According to MoAD, food-deficit situation will be severe in 10 of the 14 most earthquake-affected districts along with Okhaldhunga, Sindhuli, Nuwakot and Ramechhap. Dhading, Gorkha and Sindhupalchowk, which were in food-surplus situation last year, have been englited as food-deficit districts this year.
Fourteen most earthquake-affected districts will face combined deficit of 553,969 tons the next fiscal year, according to the report.
The country will face deficit of 676,800 tons of rice in2015/16. MoAD assumes that the country will be self-sufficient in other food. The report projects that the country will see surplus of 43,300 tons of maize, 1,000 tons of millet, 466 tons of buckwheat, 785,800 tons of wheat and 1,600 tons of barley in the next fiscal year.
The preliminary report states that 135,000 tons of food was destroyed by the recent earthquake.
Low production, rise in population, impact of earthquake, and increasing use of food grains to prepare animal feed are some of the reasons behind low food surplus this year, according to the report.
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