Food crisis

Food crisis


For May 23, 2011
Food is one of the fundamental essentials that we need to survive in the world. We hear the news of many people dying from hunger every year. There are also many who commit suicide because of failing to struggle everyday-fight with hunger due to abject poverty. There are also many people in our country who do not have access to food due to geographical reasons. We feel quite surprised when we hear of the people suffering a lot from the shortage of food materials just because they do not have access to roads even in this 21st century.

Karnali is one of the most remote districts in far western Neal which again stands on the brink of a serious food crisis as the UN World Food Programme (WFP) is going to stop distributing food to nearly a million people in the region because of funding shortfalls.

WFP spokeswoman Christina Hobbs has said that it does not have enough funds to continue flying supplies by helicopter to western Nepal, where road access is patchy and around a million people rely on UN food aid.

The costly helicopter trips will be axed by the end of this year, after which the WFP will only be able to provide food to around 100,000 people in the area.
Globally WFP is going through funding constraints, and the world’s attention in terms of assistance is shifting away from Nepal to other areas such as Japan and the Middle East. WFP has been working with the government to try to build their capacity in this area, but the places are very remote, and their capacity is limited. Malnutrition rates in these areas are around 70 percent, WFP would expect to see an increase in both child mortality and maternal mortality.

Although the government transports some food provision to the area for sale at subsidised rates, most of the supplies go by road. And as the monsoon is expected to arrive soon this year with the nation experiencing pre-monsoon showers already, the ill-maintained rural road connecting the remote far western district will virtually be impassable, which will surely hit the distribution of food and other essential to the region.

Karnali has a mostly dirt track “highway” often blocked by landslides during the monsoon season. With almost no irrigation facility, Karnali’s rain-fed production typically gives the local population enough sustenance for at most six months of the year.

What would be other misfortune than living in extreme poverty with no touch of modernity far away from the access to many facilities including daily essentials? Policy makers sitting on the key-posts need to consider about the remote areas as well because our own brothers and sisters are dying of hunger on the one hand and on the other, many of us are enjoying delicious foods of our choice in a five or three star hotels of developed cities.