The UN food agency that recently forwarded various suggestions to the government to control growing food insecurity has said the government should raise investment in agriculture sector -- the mainstay of national economy -- to 20 percent of the total annual expenditure from existing five percent.
The agency has emphasized on micro-irrigation, flood and drought resistant seeds, increasing use of fertilizers and other inputs in agriculture sector to boost agriculture production within the country. It has also suggested the government to increase scientific research on changing agricultural trends such as agriculture patterns, outbreak of pests, weeds and rising infestation of diseases in farms.
The WFP has also suggested institutionalizing Disaster Risk Reduction to minimize the future impact and likelihood of landslides, monsoon flooding and glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs) and institutionalize Nepal Food Security Monitoring and Analysis System within the government as an early warning system to agriculture and food security changes.
Renewed focus on family planning to control soaring population, national river management strategy and up scaling of successful climate resilient livelihood projects to diversify income in food-deficit areas, such as many of those currently undertaken by the government´s Poverty Alleviation Fund, have been also recommended to cope with food crisis in the country for long run.
Occasional severe drought, natural disaster, fluctuations in food production and poor access to energy sources are indications that Nepal is highly exposed to climate change.
“In Nepal, research, planning and investment must focus on adaptation to a future of increased global warming while supporting global goals for climate mitigation,” said the UN agency in its second series of WFP-Nepal Food Thought.
The WFP also stated that over the past 30 years, an increasingly capricious climate combined with 10 years of conflict, nearly two years of sustained high food prices and ongoing security concerns and population growth have reduced the ability of Nepal´s poorest households to depend upon their land to meet their basic needs.
“It is commonly expected that increasing drought, erratic monsoon, rising snow line, crop disease, pests, and severe weather conditions will increasingly reduce crop production unless substantial interventions are made,” the WFP noted.
Priority in the livelihood of agriculture-reliant household -- some 80 percent of total population -- and detailed national planning on climate change have also been suggested to mitigate the impact of the climate change in agriculture sector.
Besides providing food assistance to the people in food deficit districts, the WFP is providing assistance on 1,395 hectares of irrigation systems and water harvesting ponds, 29 hectares of agricultural land development plant nurseries; 406 fish ponds; 53 apple, banana and walnut orchards; 540 hectares of tree plantation 2,863 meters of river bank reconstruction and rehabilitation.
Global Warming is expected to reduce contribution of agriculture in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) by 20 percent in ten years in developing countries.
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