COVID-19 🦠 pandemic and Nepalese food security 🌾 🥒

Food security in Nepal is always come as big concern. Our agricultural system is recognized as non-productive system. It is because that our farming system is highly rainfed and marginalized. Most of the farming system is still depending on natural rainfall and traditional way of faring. These Problems are limiting our agricultural system to be productive. Definitely farming under very low inputs such as fertilizers, irrigation and nutrient would not result in better output. Because of this reason, we are suffering from food insecurity since long time ago. 

 Photo: Rural women harvesting vegetable form her farm, Photo source: USAID

Even Nepal has taken significant steps to reduce the food insecurity in past several years, the hunger and malnutrition rate had not gone down. Most of the Nepalese women and children are still malnourished till date. 

Meanwhile COVID-19 🦠 came as an important economic cause to slow down every aspect of economy including agricultural development worldwide. It has not left our country untouched. It has created tremendous impact on slowing down agricultural growth and food security.

 Meanwhile Nepal is facing serious hit of food insecurity in whole country . Even before this COVID-19 pandemic, our agricultural system was not much concerned with food security, that is creating pressure at this moment to push people behind the line of hunger. Projecting daily food requirement and making storage of enough foods for future use was only limited within rural farming community where there is a practice to save food for whole year from one harvest every year. It has to come in national food security program and had to be in  mainstream in agricultural goal. COVID-19 has given lesson to think about potential food insecurity situation in future. 

COVID-19 🦠 pandemic time and food insecurity

After the COVID-19 pandemic reach its peak, it had directly threaten the national level of food security risk.  Whenever coronavirus pandemic and crisis unfolded major disruption in production and in domestic supply chain of food items throughout the nation. Furthermore, impact in food production, loss of income and loss of remittance in most of the household had created tension over food security risk in Nepal. Immediately after the crisis aroused, the safety measures taken for COVID-19 at border to transport food goods had inflate the price, that was not affordable by low level income household. 

From the production level, food producers at local level had faced series of problems as well as production loss. Because of necessary restriction imposed, perishable goods such as milk could not traded well enough. It had created poor consumptions of perishable goods in major city areas such as in Kathmandu, tend to remain malnourished. In another hand, because of disruption in supply chain for agriculture input such as fertilizers, seeds and labour force, production side has affected significantly. There was shortage of agri-input during peak season of rice transplantation this year, which may reflect next year's food security status i.e. next season harvest may be affected.  

The COVID-19 crisis left all people behind to think, 'secure for today, let see what would happen today'. In this way, the local farmers who experienced acute hunger today, will think for today's food, there won't be any energy to go to farm and work for tomorrow. It mean, the priority of most of the producers had concentrated to focus today's meal not for today. It could create potential food shortage in future. However in lump sum, the potential risk of food insecurity was driven because of disruption in supply and distribution system and channel. 

Most of the food insecurity during COVID-19 pandemic happened within the nation is also from:

☘️Logistic, supply and distribution affected inter province and inter district because of restriction imposed for COVID-19

☘️Frequent extreme weather such as landslides and flood. Flood had swiped out many rice transplanted field in Tarai and in many hilly areas. Plus landslides at the same time had swiped many maize and finger millet field in mid and high hill. 

☘️ Income loss from pandemic from low-mid level income household chronically impacted from hunger

Where should our future agriculture  🌾  go?

As we already had risk of food insecurity every year, furthermore, this pandemic had given us a bitter experience in potential food shortage and hunger. To cope this kind of crisis in future, we have to shape our future agriculture from today. 

Immediately after the crisis over, government should focus on surplus production of agri-goods through commercialization. Government should have the data for how much food we have in daily intake, so that future forecast of food requirement can be done. Taking base from these data, a solid and sound industrialization plan can be implemented in accessible area like in Tarai. 3-4 agri-industries for at least most of the daily food requirement products at least in each province could help in future to secure daily food requirement within the province if any pandemic hit. 

In hill and mid hill regions, a system should manage to develop agri input distribution system including labour and machineries such small and hand operated machines which are feasible for terraces and small land. It would make hill agro-system to continue even if there is pandemic in future. Therefore, can help in commercialisation and/or making at least more than sufficient food production based on the fertility status cluster of land such as valley and plains/besi. It could help in future to secure enough food for daily need. 

Keep encouraging youth and technical human resource to come in agri-business would help to go our agriculture in business. The business is that, which has a system and that system generated money, therefore to get stable income and stable daily food supply to home, it is necessary to have agri-business large scale. Even in crisis, the system would run, therefore the employee would less likely to be affected from income. In other hand the employed people would more likely to be able for supporting his/her family food requirement. Business and entrepreneurship should be implemented from time now onwards. 

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