SURKHET, Aug 13: Every year, the Karnali Province reels under food insecurity. Despite the problem being almost like an annual ritual, governments have paid little or no attention to address the issue so far.
Four out of seven districts in the province suffer from food shortage. The spared three are Rukum, Salyan and Surkhet, said the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture and Cooperatives of the province.
Last year the province faced shortage of 18,407 metric tonnes of food grains, Dipendra Sribastav, technical assistance at the Ministry said.
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Last year, Salyan, Surkhet and Rukum stored 13,650, 5,405 and 2,664 metric tonnes of food grains respectively.
For the remaining districts, food insecurity ranged from 1,500 metric tonnes to 14,000 metric tonnes. Kalikot had the highest food insecurity (14,633). It was followed by Humla (8,415), Mugu (5,102), Jumla (4,133), Jajarkot (3,594), Dolpa (2,666) and Dailekh (1,530) metric tonnes respectively.
On average, an individual from Karnali consumes 191 kilograms of food grains annually while those from Rukum, Salyan, Surkhet, Dailekh and Jajarkot consume 201 each, said the Ministry. Workload and availability of food grains are blamed for the differences in food consumption by people of hilly and mountainous districts.
Increase in foreign employment aspirants from the province, distraction from agriculture, low rainfalls, migration, unmanaged urbanization and climate change are to blame for the province facing food shortage, said Purna Bahadur Thapa of the Ministry.
The population of the province increased to estimated 1.8 million in 2074 B.S. from 1.3 million in 2068 B.S., according to the Ministry. RSS
