Mid-western districts facing acute food shortage
Karnali Messenger-Karnali Forum for Sustainable development
Source: nepalnews.com
Indra Adhikari May 22 06
Remote mid-western districts of Humla, Jumla, Kalikot, Mugu and Dolpa
are facting acute food shortage due to lack of rain over the last six
months. Farmers across the region couldn't plant their barley, wheat
and maize and where they did, the plants dried away due to the drought.
"Most of the people have run out of their food stocks and running to
the district headquarters with hopes to see the arrival of food from
Nepalgunj," former chairman of District Development Committee of Humla,
Jivan Bahadur Shahi, told Nepalnews.
"The people in Karnali were not able to distinguish which of the crops
can be taken as food," says Shahi, adding, "They do not regard wheat,
barely, potato or maize as food." The major reason, he claims, for this
growing tradition was their psychology to regard that those taking rice
have high social prestige.
Min Bahadur Shahi, president of Karnali Integrated Rural Development
and Resource Center (KIRTARC), said the government must focus on
changing the food habits of the local people rather than seeking funds
to supply food from Kathmandu every year.
But this will take years while the issue at hand is to send food for
hungry and malnourished people immediately. According to the state-run
Nepal Food Corporation (NFC), out of 40,470 quintals (including
additional supply of 8,250 quintals) of food allocated for Karnali
region this year, nearly 85 percent has already reached the district
headquarters. But people continue to go hungry for the past several
weeks.
According to Min Bahadur Shahi, most of the supplied stuff is consumed
at the district headquarters by the government officials and security
personnel. "Since there hasn't been separate supplies for security
personnel this year, they have consumed most of the food meant for
villagers," he added.
Indications of crisis was felt as early as in March this year when a
French INGO, Action Contre La Faim (ACF), carried out food and
nutrition survey in these districts. The INGO said the problem was
serious in southern Humla, northern Kalikot, and the southern belt of
Mugu and Dolpa districts. The decision of the royal government to stop
the supply of rice fearing to be looted by Maoists added fuel to the
deepening crisis.
While people in villages pass hungry days, relatives of government
officials in district headquarters have started establishing local
alcohol shops, which are made out of the food supplied from Kathmandu,
according to reports.
Deputy General Manager of the NFC, P. C Pandey, said his office was not
in a position to maintain additional supply. "We have asked Ministry of
Supplies for additional support but could not receive any reply. We
have been facing problem in transporting remaining food from Nepalgunj
by air to these districts due to bad weather," he said. Supply by mules
is not possible in the summer.
The problem of food crisis in Karnali has been headache for the
government for the last three-and-half decades. It has encouraged
people to rely more on government supplies than seeking alternatives
for growing food locally. "Though the region has less than one percent
land for cultivation of rice, seasonal cereals and grains, cash crops
can be gown abundantly," said former DDC president Shahi.
Some relief organisations say the situation has turned so serious that
sending rice to the region will not be enough, food now will have to be
dropped from helicopters directly into affected VDCs.