Terrace farming in Nepal © Mark Naftalin

Nepal is listed amongst the 16 countries with the world’s most serious problems of food insecurity. The years of conflict have deterred investment in agriculture. Falling productivity has removed the status of self-sufficiency in food that the country once enjoyed. With 80% of livelihoods dependent on agriculture, many of them subsistence farmers on small plots of land, it is little surprise that Unicef reports that malnutrition is the cause of 60% of child mortality.

A 2007 report by the World Food Programme (WFP) and the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation describes Nepal as chronically food insecure. More recent assessments report 2.5 million to be in need of food aid with a further 3.9 million at risk. A quarter of the population is therefore causing concern to aid agencies. The situation was greatly aggravated during 2008, not only by rising prices but also by India’s decision to suspend exports of rice on which Nepal depends.

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