Although the Interim Constitution has recognized food sovereignty as the fundamental human rights and is reflected for the first time in the Three Year Interim Plan (2007-2010) as food security for all citizens, Nepal, in recent years, has been increasingly becoming a food-deficit country and vulnerable to food insecurity. [break]
In 2008-09, the total food grains shortage was about 132,900 metric tons (mt) which further aggravated to 316,000mts affecting 1.6 million people in 2009-10. It is expected that the country will remain a food-deficit and food-unsecured for a long time if a massive reform is not made soon.
What went wrong in our agricultural sector? The first wrong we did was to leave alone the poor farmers in the wave of economic reforms without giving a minimum of state protection. In a bid to garner foreign aid and boost up economic growth, Nepal initiated structural adjustment and adopted economic liberalization in early 1990s. The economic reform put non-agricultural sector in more advantageous situation. The positive impacts were noticed on the banking and financial, aviation and transport, education and information, and communication sectors. The reform measure has also proven to be instrumental in improving the trade performance. However, it failed to correct trade imbalance, high fiscal deficit and high and variable rates of inflation, which have adversely affected the outcome of economic liberalization. The bare fact is that a major economic sector like agriculture was non-responsive to the economic reform as it failed to create rural employment opportunities and to reduce mass poverty.
One important policy deviation was in the import of fertilizer and expansion of irrigation projects in the Tarai. The subsidies that the government used to provide for chemical fertilizers and deep and shallow tube wells have been completely removed in the name of economic reform whereas heavy subsidies are still enjoyed by the farmers of neighboring countries. With the subsidy on fertilizers scrapped, the per unit area consumption of fertilizer didn’t improve. Rather, it declined considerably, affecting food production in the country. Apart from that, low-quality fertilizers entering Nepal from border districts significantly increased economic burden of our farmers posing threat to soil fertility and crop productivity. The removal of subsidy in deep and shallow tube wells distinctly hampered the expansion of irrigation, which was thought to be the centerpiece of Tarai irrigation strategy as envisioned by the Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP).
Another drawback of the policy was not to implement APP wholeheartedly in its spirit and objective. APP had recognized agricultural sector as an initial engine meant to accelerate economic growth and it was formulated with a view to put the agricultural sector on a sustainable high-growth path. APP in fact was not only a sectoral plan but was also a blueprint for the overall economic transformation of the country. The government could not allocate the priority input and output investments as set forth by the APP, both from public and private sources. APP’s suboptimal performance, thus, is attributed mainly to inadequate investment, organizational weakness and lack of willpower to implement the plan. Therefore, failing to implement the APP effectively was the first sign of withdrawing the agricultural sector from the national priority list!
Since agriculture remained no longer a priority sector, public expenditure on it gradually declined and reached to one of the lowest in 2006-07, the implications of which were poor service delivery of agricultural extension and severe constraints in research and technology development. Between research and extension, research suffered more as it is under second priority in medium term expenditure framework. It is said that the declining investment was a reflection of global trend of declining Official Development Assistance (ODA) on agriculture. In 1980, the ODA for agriculture was 17% which dropped to 3.8% in 2006 and now it’s estimated to be around 5%. This had happened when the number of hungry and malnourished people in the world outstripped the one billion mark in 2009. The most recent setback for agricultural sector is out-migration of youths from rural areas in search of better employment opportunities. Although remittance is an important component of national income these days, non-creation of jobs inside the country, encouraging youths in droves to migrate every year, affects food security in the long run. Initially, it creates a shortage of agriculture laborers. Second, they are poorly paid. Third, remittances, without clear investment policy don’t help the agricultural sector to foster. It rather spurs the plotting of land, which turns cultivable lands into concrete jungles.
Food distribution and food security has a close relationship; however, unregulated food aid and restricted agriculture create a world of hunger and poverty by depressing local food production and creating dependency on imported foods. That is what is said to be exactly happening in the food-deficit remote districts of Karnali and some districts of far west. The ever increasing demand of rice grains in the region signals that local agricultural system is being harmed through the change in people’s food habits and by creating dependency on the single imported food grain –rice.
The main implications of indiscriminate rice distribution are increased loss of agro biodiversity of local land acres, poor crop diversification and multiple cropping, malnutrition, and total abandonment of the cultivation of secondary crops like local grains, buckwheat, beans, tubers and several indigenous crop species. This could be a great loss to agro biodiversity, which is the key to food security and food production and supply stability in the remote hills and mountainous regions.
In climate regime, it is expected that climate change impact on agriculture would even be more serious in future adversely affecting the overall food security situation. It is now much clear that erratic monsoon may strike harder to food production, and we may experience greater frequency of extreme weather events, as well.
It is, therefore, urgent to see that the State seek solutions to these problems through appropriate policy formulations and frame a Comprehensive Food Security Plan in its own capacity that reflects a true picture of this nation. This plan must not be a showpiece just to attract foreign aid but should depict the national and local conditions to ensure food security through its aggressive implementation in the Tarai, hills and mountains alike. To materialize this plan, strong political willpower is needed to take more coherent and effective action in reducing and eradicating the prevalence of poverty, hunger and malnutrition from this naturally rich but impoverished nation.
The writer can be reached at drdahal_h@yahoo.com
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