Nepal faces looming food crisis after natural disasters hit farmers

KABHRE REGION, Nepal — Arjun Parajuli, a 67-year-old farmer from Kabhre, in northeastern Nepal, just survived one of the most challenging monsoons of his life. After working as a cycle rickshaw driver for 50 years in Kathmandu, earlier this year he poured his life savings into his family farm. A day later, everything was gone. The monsoons washed it all away. “Most people in my village lost their homes, storage and irrigation systems,” he said.

The monsoon season in Nepal typically lasts from June to September, and this year it came after a devastating earthquake and several aftershocks in April killed more than 8,000 people and destroyed thousands of farms in the eastern part of the country. More than a third of Nepal’s population works in the agricultural sector, and before the rains, “a lot of farmers on the top of the hills abandoned their farms,” Parajuli said. In the wake of these disasters, the country has faced a looming food crisis as farmers have struggled to get back on their feet.

In a sense, Parajuli was one of the lucky ones: After the earthquakes, Nepalese residents were entitled to $150 in assistance, and Parajuli collected his money and used it to build a temporary shelter for his family. However, he estimates the damage to his farm totaled about $15,000. “The government promised to give all farmers enough money to build new homes. But I don’t think that will happen. I don’t have 50 more years to save money,” he said. Applying for the money required a significant amount of paperwork, which meant that many farmers from lower castes or with limited literacy skills were excluded.

Between the earthquakes and the monsoons, over the last four months agricultural production has decreased dramatically. Somsak Pipoppinyo, Nepal’s representative to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, believes Nepal might be on the verge of a crisis. “We estimate around 500,000 people in Nepal to be [experiencing] severe food insecurity,” he said. According to statistics recently released by Nepal’s national Rastra Bank, rice and paddy imports jumped 43.4 percent from August 2014 to August of this year, and since the earthquakes, the government and aid organizations have been distributing staple foods such as rice and lentils.

Though an effort has been made to replenish staple crops, experts predict that other agricultural activities will be limited this year. According to Eva Weiner, a consultant at Kaule Environment, an agricultural nonprofit operating in the Nuwakot district, “Most farmers don’t have the resources to invest time and money into the cash crops such as strawberries, tomatoes or radish, which are much more lucrative than staples like rice and maize. Families will take a big financial cut from that.”