På grund af den sene monsunregn i Nepal forventes det, at mange bønder vil høste så lidt som halvdelen af deres normale høst i år. Landet kæmper ellers hårdt nok i forvejen mod fejlernæring og fødevareusikkerhed, advarer World Food Programme (WFP) ifølge irinnews.org tirsdag.
KATHMANDU: “What we’re concerned with is the mid and far west – the hills area,” said Dominique Hyde, deputy country director of WFP in Nepal. The regions are home to 600,000 of the country’s estimated 3.6 million food insecure, according to WFP’s August food security bulletin.
Production losses above 50 percent were reported in seven out of 24 mid- and far-western districts, attributable to several local disasters, including drought, heavy snowfall and a hailstorm. Now, an unpredictable monsoon season – normally June to August – has caused additional concern.
“Since 2006, there have been three droughts. Now, they’ve had an erratic monsoon due to climate change, and they’ve had a lot of delays in planting in the mid and far west. We’re expecting 30-50 percent loss of harvest because of this year’s monsoon,” Hyde said.
Experts disagree on how much climate change causes such weather variability.
The mid-western Karnali region is considered the poorest, least developed and most food insecure of this Himalayan nation. According to WFP, nearly 70 percent of under-five children have stunted growth and nearly half are underweight – the worst malnutrition figures in the country.
With almost no irrigation and a mostly dirt track “highway” often blocked by landslides during the monsoon season, Karnali’s rain-fed production typically gives the local population enough sustenance for at most six months of the year.
“You have people who have been trying to deal with drought over the past three to four years, and have depleted their assets,” said Hyde. “What do they do? How do they cope? They have used most of their assets, so they pull their children out of school. They send their relatives to India, so it’s one less mouth to fill,” irinnews.org writes on Tuesday.
