KATHMANDU, May 13: A crucial government report has reckoned that 40 percent of the population in the mountain and hill districts, except those in eastern Nepal, are suffering through a severe food crisis: a result of the growing food deficit in the country.
The numbers affected, according to the Ministry of Agriculture and Co-operatives (MoAC), stands at 3.35 million, out a total of 8.4 million people living in these areas. [break]
A fresh report released by the MoAC has stated that Nepal is running short of 132,916 tons of food grains, and this despite the rise in paddy and maize production, by 5.2 percent and 2.8 percent this year respectively, compared to last year.
In 2008/9, the total requirement of food grain across the country was estimated at 5.33 million tons, whereas total production was 5.17 million tons.
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But this year, because of the steep declines--by 14.5 percent and 17 percent--in the production of wheat and barley--the major winter crops in the hills and mountains, the food shortage has been horrendous. The shortage occurred because the past winter was plagued with both a drought and a season of meager snowfall.
“We have estimated that people living in the Far-Western Region have to live through a food crisis for more than the next seven months, while the people in the Mid-Western region will have to bear the food crunch for at least six months,” said Dr. Hari Dahal, spokesperson of the MoAC. Those areas are suffering a deficit of about 640,000 tons of food.
In one fell swoop, the food crunch has affected almost all of the regions west of the country´s center and some parts of the Central Region. Dahal said that at least 45 percent of the people in nine districts of the Central Region, 63 percent of the people living in the western mountain districts and 53 percent of the people living in the Mid-Western Region will suffer through the food crisis.
The ministry further said that most of the districts in Karnali zone; Bajura, Bajhang, Darchula,, Achham, Doti, Baitadi, and Dadeldhura in the Far-Western Region; and some hill districts in the Mid-Western Region have all been afflicted by the crisis.
Furthermore, Dolakha, Rasuwa, Sindhuli, Kavre, Dhading and Makawanpur of the Central Region; Kaski, Gulmi and Argakhachi of the Western Region are already reeling; and Rukum, Rolpa, Pyuthan, Jajarkot and Dailekh of the Mid-Western Region will all be afflicted in the coming days.
The food crisis will make the already deplorable conditions that the people are living in almost hellish. “Skyrocketing food prices amid the worsening food shortage will further push large chunks of poor people into a quagmire of further poverty,” added Dahal.
Dahal added that dispatching the emergency supply of food grains to those crisis-torn areas is the sole option available for easing the shortage, as an immediate measure.
But even if the government can somehow alleviate the starving people´s problems, the ground reality is such that many Nepalis will continue to struggle just to stay alive: the UN World Food Program says that an average Nepali has to spend at least 65 percent of his total income on food.
