Raju Rawal gave birth to twin boys 18 months ago, but one of the babies died soon after being born. The reason was that the 23-year-old mother was doing household chores throughout her pregnancy and did not have adequate nutrition. The other son survived, but was seriously underweight and the hospital kept him under observation. Mother and baby were finally discharged with a few months’ supply of ready-to-use therapeutic food for the baby and fortified flour for herself. The baby now weighs 9kg, but the last packet of the fortified flour is finished and Rawal herself is undernourished. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/multimedia/mothers-of-sarlahi">Mothers of Sarlahi</a>, Marty Logan  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230707040756_bb11300aa04c96d2d9be301b7a1194d1ea6364b94ee2db2ffb5148f7654186b6.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20230707040756_bb11300aa04c96d2d9be301b7a1194d1ea6364b94ee2db2ffb5148f7654186b6" data-rendition-name="original" width="1920" height="1080" loading="lazy" alt="Karnali food insecurity NT"> </figure>  “We had just enough rice to last until this morning, and we will have to depend on our neighbours,” Raju’s husband Karna Bahadur says in a resigned voice. The Rawals are subsistence farmers who grow just enough food to last four months, and do not have regular income. This is the tragic reality behind the stereotype of the remote Karnali being a chronically food-deficit region of Nepal. Despite a reduction in Nepal’s national poverty rate and improvements in the national nutrition level, in these remote mountains hunger still stalks the land. Sangita Damai is a 20-year-old mother who waited in line at the local health post in Tila Rural Municipality with 50 other women to receive their monthly packet of state supplied fortified flour&nbsp; “The harvest is all gone, so our children depend on this flour,” says Damai, whose six-month-old daughter was born malnourished. Her husband is in India for half the year to support their family of eight. Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/multimedia/tara-pariyar-s-karnali">Tara Pariyar’s Karnali</a>, Anita Bhetwal  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230707040756_f05aaef5799d21cc48c10458978c6161fb9b219a70cd09b5eb9aa657bdc01f32.jpg" data-media-id="editor_3" data-image-id="20230707040756_f05aaef5799d21cc48c10458978c6161fb9b219a70cd09b5eb9aa657bdc01f32" data-rendition-name="original" width="4640" height="3472" loading="lazy" alt="Karnali food insecurity NT"> </figure>  Dilmaya Sarki is also in the queue, having made the half-day trek to the health post along with other mothers holding stunted and wasted babies. “There is no food at home,” says the 25-year-old listlessly. The fortified flour is being provided by World Food Programme (WFP) since 1996, and the government distributes 3kg of fortified wheat flour per household each month for mothers and children between the ages of 6-23 months in Mugu, Jumla, Kalikot, Humla, and Dolpo districts of Karnali province. The WFP says the program benefits 29,000 pregnant women, breastfeeding mothers and infants in the region every year. And the government procured 575 metric tons of fortified flour for this year. “Fortified flour has helped a lot of households who lack adequate food, but it is just enough to feed the children,” explains Balika Rokaya at the health post in Jumla’s Hima Rural Municipality. Female Community Health Volunteer Pulti Khatri agrees that without the nutritive flour has helped a lot of impoverished families. “Mothers come with their children to the health post to get flour, and get health check-ups at the same time,” she says. Read Also:<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/this-is-how-to-upgrade-nepals-rural-health"> This is how to upgrade Nepal's rural health</a>, Sewa Bhattarai  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/2023070705070_919242369e85a8b03eacab634bab980fe79a6927eaefb8c1fc93e52c25bbe131.jpg" data-media-id="editor_5" data-image-id="2023070705070_919242369e85a8b03eacab634bab980fe79a6927eaefb8c1fc93e52c25bbe131" data-rendition-name="original" width="4640" height="3472" loading="lazy" alt="Karnali food insecurity NT"> </figure>  Karnali is the most food deficit part of Nepal because of historical neglect of this remote region by successive governments in Kathmandu. Lately, it has been made worse because of droughts induced by the climate crisis. The province required 338,935 metric tons of food grains against availability of 319,818 metric tons. The shortfall had to be sent to the region by the state.&nbsp; The Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2016 showed stunting in children under five in Karnali Province was 36%, higher than the national average of 25%.&nbsp; “These are just statistics, but you have to look at how hungry the children are to get the real picture,” says Man Bahadur Kunwar, provincial coordinator of the multi-sector nutrition plan till this year. “Our priority has been to provide enough food, we have not yet paid attention to what kind of food.”&nbsp; More than other parts of Nepal, Karnali families suffer from multidimensional poverty, which is measured in terms of access to healthcare, education, drinking water, cooking fuel, nutrition, and sanitation.&nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/access-to-water-changes-the-face-of-rural-nepal">Access to water changes the face of rural Nepal</a>, Anita Bhetwal  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230707040756_c00078333ae6fae3b0c4a5d15b55ce3f7e52b052a2c50a02686cac4c321f0720.jpg" data-media-id="editor_7" data-image-id="20230707040756_c00078333ae6fae3b0c4a5d15b55ce3f7e52b052a2c50a02686cac4c321f0720" data-rendition-name="original" width="860" height="706" loading="lazy" alt="Karnali food insecurity NT"> </figure>  But just distributing fortified flour year after year may not be enough to fight hunger in the Karnali. The province needs a plan to increase local food production.&nbsp; “There has been food scarcity here for decades, but no sustainable solutions,” says Mangal Rawal of the Karnali Academy of Health Sciences. &nbsp;“More than distributing food or money, people must have access to improved education, healthcare and sanitation, and be informed, self-reliant and independent earners.” Yet, the Karnali Province has no choice but to provide emergency food aid to families. It sets aside Rs10 million annually for the fortified flour distribution program.&nbsp; “The situation in Karnali cannot be turned around by distributing fortified flour forever,” says public health worker Madhusudan Kafle. “The problem is chronic malnutrition caused by poverty.”&nbsp; Yogandra Bahadur Shahi, vice-chair of the Karnali Province Planning Commission, insists that women and children need fortified flour and financial support for the time being.&nbsp; He adds, “But in the longer term, we have to improve connectivity, tourism, industry, hydropower, as well as apple and herb and farming and marketing to raise incomes.” &nbsp; Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/farm-to-fork">Farm to fork</a>

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The Karnali’s hunger emergency

The European Union (EU) and South Asian countries have come together to devise strategies to cope with the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russian invasion of Ukraine and extreme weather conditions caused by the climate crisis on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/news/nepal-s-glaring-food-gap">food availability</a>. Disruption on global food supply chains can lead to hunger, malnutrition and obesity in communities around the world. Alternatively, agriculture is energy intensive with a sizeable carbon footprint. Current food production, transport and processing methods are one of the largest contributors to global warming with 21-37% of greenhouse gas emissions attributed to food chains. The EU-South Asia meeting ‘Farm to Fork’ in New Delhi included officials from five South Asian countries including Nepal, India, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh held dialogue with the EU on soil health and organic production, &nbsp;sustainable use of pesticides and antimicrobials, and food loss and waste. “Promoting the shift towards healthy, sustainable diets has to be done through collaboration. The food system is everyone’s business,” said Atul Upadhyay of the Food Scientists and Technologists Association of Nepal, adding that cross-border cooperation in the region was the way forward to effectively address the problem. Koen Van Dyck of the Bilateral International Relations at the EU Commission agreed: “We have to work together, exchange information and build alliances: the need for global action is clear."  <figure> <img src="https://publisher-publish.s3.eu-central-1.amazonaws.com/pb-nepalitimes/swp/asv65r/media/20230409090440_2d3d44f14f2b9db11e283298fda926892cdd72444cbf309086981c6a966291af.jpg" data-media-id="editor_1" data-image-id="20230409090440_2d3d44f14f2b9db11e283298fda926892cdd72444cbf309086981c6a966291af" data-rendition-name="original" width="960" height="640" loading="lazy" alt="food security"> </figure>  <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-sets-ambitious-target-for-food-sufficiency">Nepal made</a> some dramatic strides in reducing childhood and maternal malnutrition in the last two decades. Stunting in particular decreased from 57% in the 1990s to 36% in 2016. But the progress has since stalled. Stunting needs to be well below 15% in 10 years to meet the global target -- it is still 36%. The <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-pandemic-of-hunger">Covid-19 pandemic</a> and the climate change have added to the problem. While the former has meant reduced income to afford nutritious food, the latter has led to reduced productivity, if not crop failures due to unreliable precipitation patterns. Now, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/ukraine-climate-and-nepal">the Ukraine crisis</a> has increased the cost of commodities , including fuel and food. Given the rise of new infectious diseases and volatile geopolitical tensions, the solution may lie in developing <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/biodynamic-agripreneurs">sustainable food systems</a> which goes beyond the means of production and also addresses nutrition challenges such as undernutrition and hunger, say experts. 'These challenges persist while new and multiple forms of malnutrition rise. In particular, food-borne non-communicable diseases such as cancer, obesity, and cardiovascular conditions put pressure on people and health systems,' reads an EU statement. The food system also needs to take into account land degradation or food loss that ultimately affect how food is produced, processed, transported and consumed. Which is why, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/we-are-what-we-eat">diversifying diets</a> can be a key driver in the change to sustainable food systems, says Jamie Morrison, senior policy advisor at GAIN (Global alliance for Improved Nutrition) Bangladesh. While Bhutanese officials stated the need of transforming subsistence farming to a commercial system where rural income is improved and increased, Sri Lanka on the other hand put an emphasis on organic farming. “The niche market of organic products should be developed not only for export, but also for the domestic market. Organic farming is happening on a small scale and we encourage those who want to do it," said Malathy Parasuraman of the Ministry of Agriculture in Sri Lanka. Parts of Nepal have carried out <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/multimedia/the-organic-uncle-of-chitwan">organic farming</a> with a varying degree of success. But most agree that the organic approach is profitable in the longer run, healthier and also sustainable, once it has reversed the damage caused by the rampant use of harmful chemical pesticides. Says Shahidur Rashid of IFPRI (International Food Policy Research Institute) in India: “We must not leave this to future generations: food systems are a complex concept and a much bigger challenge than the green revolution in the 1950s and 60s.”

Farm to fork

<figure><img width="1000" height="667" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111144/63721c5a9c7e80680e0bd489jpeg.jpg" alt=""/><figcaption>Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>Already reeling from child hunger and wars in Yemen and across Saharan and central Africa, the developing world is now bracing for the full impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on food supply.Nearly two months into this European war, aside from the horrific suffering in Ukraine, experts warn that the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/ukraine-crisis-hits-nepal-economy-hard/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">long-term impact on energy and food prices</a> will affect the world’s most vulnerable people the most.South Asia is already seeing the economic impact of the Ukraine war turn into full-blown political crises in Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Although Nepal’s debt burden is not as serious as Sri Lanka, the soaring import bill for food and fuel, stagnant exports and the collapse of tourism have depleted the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-living-beyond-its-mean/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">foreign exchange reserves</a>. The only saving grace is that remittance from Nepalis abroad showed a slight increase in February.  Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/ukraine-climate-and-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Ukraine, Climate and Nepal</a>, Sonia AwaleNepal Oil Corporation raised the price of petroleum products again this week to Rs160/l for petrol and Rs1,600 for an LPG cylinder. This will raise the price of food even more. Nepal Rastra Bank verbally instructed CEOs this week to cut LCs for imports of luxury items and real estate loans. The government is mulling a two-day weekend with 9AM start to weekdays, and cutbacks on the government’s fuel consumption. Ukraine and Russia collectively supply more than a quarter of the world’s cereals including wheat. Nepal imports grain from India, which has a stock of nearly 100 million tons and has been sending aid to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/afghanistan-abandoned/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Afghanistan</a> and other countries in the region. In March, its export of wheat rose to 8 million tons. This is expected to push up food prices in India, and by extension in Nepal.“We have to quickly establish or identify alternative suppliers for the import of basic food items, maintain a minimum of buffer stocks and implement food or cash-based program that supports and protects the poor who may be affected by the price rise,” Bishow Parajuli, the WFP Representative in India, told Nepali Times.Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/growing-appetite-for-school-lunches/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Growing appetite for school lunches</a>, Marty Logan <figure><img width="1000" height="667" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221114111144/63721c5d9c7e80680e0bd48ajpeg.jpg" alt=""><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>The knock-on effect of rising food and energy prices will be felt most acutely by the neediest (children, women and the elderly) in counties like Nepal. The Covid-19 lockdown had already deprived many Nepali families of income, and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/pandemic-of-poverty/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">surveys</a> had shown that their children were eating less. Already, almost half of Nepal’s children are <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nearly-half-of-nepali-children-still-malnourished/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">suffering from some form of malnutrition</a>.   Despite dramatic strides in reducing stunting (less height for age) to 36% from 57% in the 1990s, progress has stalled. Childhood malnutrition predates Covid-19, but income loss due to the economic fallout of the pandemic and rising costs due to the Ukraine war has made the situation more precarious. The<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/growing-appetite-for-school-lunches/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> WFP’s school lunch program</a> in the remote western mountains of Nepal has helped meet some of the nutritional requirements of growing children. This program is now being handed over to the government to run in 71 districts.   Under-nutrition is a precursor for a host of ailments and a leading cause of child deaths, retarded mental and physical growth, and compromised immune systems. Child hunger in Nepal was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/hunger-for-governance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a sign of political failure</a>, misguided state priorities, lack of accountability and corruption. Covid, the Ukraine war and long-term impact of climate crisis all threaten to make it much worse. With food and fuel prices set to rise even higher, the government needs to prepare for an emergency at a time when it is preoccupied with elections. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/grassroots-democracy-promotes-good-health/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Elected representatives</a> could help deliver immediate relief with feeding programs for the most at risk. Once they take office, they must launch campaigns for agricultural self-sufficiency, climate-smart farming, and irrigation systems. Says WFP’s Parajuli: “We have to create incentives and encourage farmers to grow their own food especially short-term crops such as the vegetables, and in the medium-term expansion of new season rice plantation, which will start soon.” Read Also: <a style="background-color: #ffffff; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-epidemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal's epidemic of hunger</a>, Anita Bhetwal

Sonia Awale

The geopolitics of food

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161152/636d1e8b9c7e80680e0af416jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"/><figcaption>Photo: SAGLO SAMAJ/HIMALMEDIA</figcaption></figure>The Covid-19 worsened the disparities in young children’s development and learning in Nepal. One out of five Nepali children between the ages of 2-4 years are not developing on track amidst the pandemic with noted impact on their health, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/covid-19-cancels-regions-gains-in-education/">learning</a> and psychological well-being, a new UNICEF study has revealed.The Early Childhood Development Index (ECDI) survey conducted in August among 2,853 households via phone conversation showed that children from lower income families, living in rural areas, with caregivers with no or low levels of education, and not attending early childhood education (ECE) programs were at higher risk.Even among children who attended ECE, those who attended government ECE were at higher risk of being developmentally off track compared to those who attended private programs.Early stimulation activities like <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-power-of-reading-aloud/">reading books</a>, telling stories, singing songs, going outside, naming objects, counting, or drawing things were found instrumental for young children’s development and learning. However, the data revealed an alarming plunge in parental engagement compared to pre-pandemic conditions.As the country opened up with the decline in Covid cases in August 2021 and parents pursued livelihood options, only 31% of children received early stimulation at home by family members compared to 73% in 2019.A follow up survey in October found that mothers’ engagement improved over the time after she got over the initial hectic schedule right of the pandemic. The same can’t be said for the fathers, whose parental engagement remained low at 6%, maintaining a social norm of men’s reduced role in raising children.This is just the latest in the series of impacts that young children have been subjected to following the pandemic. Early in the coronavirus crisis, repeated lockdowns and travel restrictions meant that parents were unable to take their children for routine immunisation, also resulting in an outbreak of measles in the Dhading district. Similarly, the dramatic <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/children-are-collateral-damage-in-nepal-lockdown/">decline in institutional delivery</a> led to increased infant mortality.Reduced family income due to job losses during the pandemic also added to the problem of childhood malnutrition in Nepal. School closures also deprived many children of getting <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-out-of-school-children-get-food-at-home/">one decent meal a day</a> while they also missed their lessons with over 80% of government school children not having attended classes – online or otherwise in the past two years.Among children in the age group 2-4 years, half of those surveyed were found to have been enrolled in <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/Nepali-Times-Buzz/Prepping-for-preschool,253">pre-primary level</a> but 34% of them didn’t participate in learning through alternative learning modalities at all, most of the children only accessed home tuition. While low-tech solutions like educational radio and TV and tele-teaching were almost unused, high-tech solutions like online classes were used almost exclusively among children who attended private ECE.Underused low-tech solutions and unequal access to high-tech solutions might have further contributed to the developmental gap observed between children who attended private ECE and other children and is the proof of the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/digital-divide-exposes-class-divide-in-nepal-schools/">growing digital divide</a> between private and public institutions.Following the survey results, UNICEF has recommended remedial learning to target children at a higher risk. The government and aid agencies should also develop a system to support teachers and parents to understand their children and figure out their learning levels through user-friendly assessments.In many ways, Covid-19 was a learning lesson for future disasters and being forced to adapt to online educational tools has helped teachers, students and parents prepare for school closures. But the alternative methods of learning remain largely underused, mostly in lack of infrastructure. School across Nepal <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/lessons-not-learned-from-the-pandemic/">has to be trained and well-equipped</a> with Internet facilities and electronic devices.Having said that, parenting education, in particular, involvement of fathers and learning at home is of utmost importance and should be communicated as much in the communities.

Covid derails child development in Nepal

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110161128/636d18d39c7e80680e0ac7e8jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="960" height="640"/><figcaption>Photo: SAGLO SAMAJ/HIMALMEDIA</figcaption></figure>Earlier this year, as the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-pandemic-of-hunger/">sec</a><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-pandemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ond wave</a> was subsiding in Nepal’s far-western mountains, I noticed the kind of dramatic change in the diet of families that I had earlier only seen in semi-urban settings.In Achham district’s Bayalpata Hospital, I came across a one-year-old who weighed just 5kg. She was being breastfed by a mother who was herself undernourished. “The child only eats noodles and biscuits, that is why I am still breastfeeding,” said the mother.The family has cows and a patch of land where they grow vegetables. There is enough lentil and flour at home. <a style="background-color: #ffffff; font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-tall-order/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">So why was the child not eating a healthier diet?</a>“Noodles have all the nutrition to give her strength but my baby is still losing weight which is why I have brought her to the hospital,” the young mother tells the doctor.The traditional practice of growing and consuming locally grown lentils, soybean, millet and buckwheat is being replaced even in the remotest parts of Nepal by <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepalis-binge-on-junk-foods-the-west-rejected/">junk food</a> in throwaway plastic wrappings.Locals here have been misled by tv commercials that have glamourised noodles and biscuits, and convinced many parents that they contain <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/junk-food-is-making-nepali-children-shorter/">vitamins and micronutrients that will make their babies healthy</a>. The instant food in plastic packs are also convenient for parents who are usually busy all day in the fields.Read also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/living-to-eat/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Living to eat</a>, Aruna UpretyChild specialist Ramesh Kant Adhikari says that, on the other hand, most urban children who grow up on junk food tend to be obese and malnourished, and certain parents are proud that they are raising well-fed children.“Parents don’t understand that such foods are harmful to the health of their children,” Adhikari told me. “They don’t believe me even when I try to explain.”As long as tv commercials and social media ads continue and the government does not regulate, the problem will persist and continue to grow. Even in the food-deficit regions in the remotest corners of Accham and Doti districts where families cannot even get basic medicines, packaged junk foods are now easily available. This is evidence enough of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/hunger-for-governance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the state’s misplaced priorities</a>.Children of subsistence farmers, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nearly-half-of-nepali-children-still-malnourished/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">already undernourished</a>, are consuming low-nutrition junk foods. The children then suffer health consequences, which means expensive consultations with doctors who then prescribe costly bottled vitamins, further impoverishing the family, and thus completing the vicious cycle.“There is absolutely no evidence that supplemental vitamins are good for growing children,” adds Adhikari. “All they need is a proper, balanced diet found in traditional home foods.”Read also: <a style="font-weight: 600;" href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=2409#.W2L-r9UzbIU" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Junk food epidemic</a>, Aruna Uprety<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/regular-columns/GUEST-COLUMN/promoting-nutritious-local-food-for-post-quake-children,524" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Local is best</a>, Aruna UpretyBut parents are so swayed by unethical commercials that public health experts are fighting a losing battle to convince them of the dangers of junk foods. Indeed, some health care workers share part of the blame: they prescribe vitamin supplements to young children instead of counselling parents on the nutrition available in the traditional Nepali diet.The Ministry of Agriculture has for decades been publishing booklets and posters to promote local produce such as buckwheat, millet, potato, lentils, latte, tarul, and beans. But lack of coordination between the health and agriculture ministries means that information rarely gets out into the hinterland.The Health Ministry also distributes packets of Balvita at health posts to treat children with malnutrition, but it does not have the sense to inform parents that the same calories, proteins and vitamins are found in abundance in fresh homemade food.Children everywhere are easily swayed by commercials, they demand what they see on tv, and parents often comply. There is also a status symbol associated with young students who take packets of instant noodles with them to school for snacks.Junk food commercials can be countered by attractive infomercials about a healthy diet. Following the pandemic, some television and radio stations started to broadcast programs on nutrition, but their reach is limited.When I was working in East Africa 10 years ago, an Ethiopian doctor shared his experience of combating childhood malnutrition in his country. “We made flour from dry-sprouted soya beans and chickpeas so that it had protein, vitamins, calcium and other micronutrients. It was cheap, easily available, and very easy to disseminate information about.”I keep sharing this information with health workers all over Nepal. But there is resistance because the Health Ministry in Kathmandu is not serious about promoting local food products aggressively enough.For example, sesame seeds have good fat, calcium, and mineral content, and can be given to children and pregnant mothers. Flax seeds contain omega-3 fatty acids and fibre. But we do not advertise these locally available superfoods, or use them in fighting malnutrition. Instead doctors prescribe imported capsules packaged by multinationals that contain the very same ingredients.Federal Ministries, especially Agriculture and Health, must coordinate with their provincial and municipal counterparts to fight malnutrition. It is not an exaggeration to say that the epidemic of junk food in Nepal is now emerging as a <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-epidemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">public health crisis</a>.Aruna Uprety is a public health specialist and author of the 2017 book on nutrition, खाना खानुभयो?Read also: <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/diabetes-in-south-asia,3018">More exercise, less soft drinks …</a>, Sonia Awale

We are what we eat

<img width="2048" height="1365" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141144/636d009e9c7e80680e0a35eajpeg.jpg" alt=""/>Despite two-thirds of its population dependent on agriculture, and having fertile land ideal for farming, Nepal’s annual food imports are <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-agro-imports-at-all-time-high/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rising exponentially</a> due to a growing population and rising income. Imports of staples like rice, vegetables, and fruits that can easily be produced in Nepal are rising steeply. In the last 60 years, while Nepal’s population more than tripled from 9.4 million to almost 30 million, paddy productivity has merely doubled from 1.8 tonnes per hectare to 3.8. As a result, Nepal’s grain import touched Rs80 billion in the last fiscal year, of which <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-rise-of-rice-in-nepal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rice alone made up Rs50 billion</a>. Maize harvests have only risen from 1.6 tonnes per hectare to 2.6 in the last three decades, and Nepal had to import Rs16.5 billion worth of maize in the last fiscal year. Vegetable production has been increasing steadily, but it is not keeping up with demand.   Nepal is less and less able to feed itself. Educated people are giving up farming for salaried jobs or migrating overseas, leading to falling production. The country’s imports of food items alone reached Rs 3.23 trillion – three times higher than 2014.  <img width="1531" height="1290" src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141144/636d00a29c7e80680e0a35ebjpeg.jpg" alt="">Read Also: <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/blood-sweat-tears/">Blood, sweat, tears,</a> EditorialA third of all remittances the country earned from foreign employment re-exited the country to foot the food import bill. Once a country with <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/nepals-rice-economy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">agricultural surplus</a>, Nepal exported only Rs84 billion worth of food items.  Imports of even products like mangoes and guava which grow abundantly in Nepal have gone up. Nepal spent Rs1.2 billion importing just those two fruits in the past year. Nepal is a producer and exporter of tea and coffee, yet it imported Rs9.5 billion worth of the two products. The country’s dairy production has also increased, but Nepal still imported Rs2 billion worth of milk, cheese and other products.  India normally accounts for up to half these imports, with its post-lockdown share at 25%. Indian farmers receive support and subsidies in seeds, fertiliser, technology and irrigation, producing crops at <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-price-of-rice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">competitive prices, </a>which in turn flood the Nepali market. As a result,<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/rice-self-sufficiency,3834" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/rice-self-sufficiency,3834&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1630549816086000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG45egAroFslkes-EV0WOiNAjk-aQ"> traditional Nepali variants are disappearing, </a>replaced by cheaper, widely-available rice and other food items. Nepal’s imports soyabean oil all the way from from Paraguay and Brazil, lentils from Australia, cooking oil from Russia, chillies from Indonesia and Vietnam, potatoes from Bangladesh, beans from Burma. Nepal may be self-sufficient in poultry products, but imports maize for chicken feed from Argentina.“Cheaper and competitive imports, especially from India, are discouraging local farmers from commercial production,” says Devendra Gauchan of Nepal Agricultural Economics Society. Self-sufficiency in agriculture has been the motto of every government in the past decades, but Nepal’s dependence on the outside world for food is only growing. The neglect of agriculture is evident in the fact that even though two-thirds of Nepalis depend on farming, the share of agriculture in the GDP has fallen to 25%.   A number of systemic issues plague the sector and waste Nepal’s agricultural potential, according to Gauchan. Workers are shifting away from agriculture to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepalis-queueing-up-all-night-for-proof-of-jab/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">foreign employment </a>and service-sector jobs, the latter now accounting for 61% of domestic production. Only 56% of all arable land in Nepal is irrigated, with even less area getting year-round irrigation, meaning most farms still depend on the rains. Productivity is also falling because of the fragmentation of landholdings. In addition, government investment, research and development and commercialisation towards agricultural technology, production and storage are sorely lacking. Only 6% of fiscal year 2021/22’s budget has been appropriated for agriculture. Meanwhile, farmers do not have access to markets, leaving produce to rot in the fields. Despite plenty of potential, a lack of concrete supportive policies has left the country dependent on others for food it could produce itself. Policymakers do not know what products to promote and derive maximum benefit from, says agriculture expert <a href="https://www.facebook.com/jeewan.rai.7792" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.facebook.com/jeewan.rai.7792&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1630549816086000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHn2bcklOgaeymW83LsxoVHhXQwAg">Jeewan Rai</a>. “The mid-mountains have optimal conditions for fruits given enough research and investment, but the government has done nothing,” says Rai. Once exclusive to supermarket shelves, avocados are now available in every corner shop. Nepal imported 120,000 tonnes of avocado last year, some from as far away as Tanzania and Kenya. To be sure, there are also positive trends. The rise in imports also indicates higher living standards and greater purchasing power of Nepalis. Once a country<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/1-in-5-nepal-families-lack-food/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> ravaged by malnutrition and hunger</a>, the percentage of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/a-tall-order/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stunted children</a> has dropped sharply from 57% in 1996 to 36% in 2016.Much of the increased spending on<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/grow-nourish-sustain-together-world-food-day/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> food items </a>is driven by a remittance boom, which brought in Rs9.61 trillion in the past year despite the pandemic – a near 10-fold growth in 15 years.  Transportation and globalisation have displaced local mainstays like buckwheat and millet with rice, which has become more affordable to the average Nepali. An emergent middle class is also driving up demand for more expensive long-grain and fragrant Basmati variants, most of which Nepali farmers can be nudged towards producing. Demand for beer, for example, is also responsible for the dramatic rise in rice imports -- <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/are-nepalis-really-eating-more-rice/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">beyond what Nepalis consume for food</a>. Statistician Ram Krishna Regmi at the Ministry of Agriculture says domestic production figures for items like rice are over-estimations, swallowing up more and more imports to cover the data gaps.But while a well-fed population is encouraging news, the priority must be to feed them with local produce and reduce the gaping trade deficit. The country must strive to produce and commercialise products tailored to its climate and soil, says Saurav Dhakal of Green Growth, which promotes local farming. Dhakal adds, “If local varieties of fruits and vegetables can be researched and promoted, reliance on foreign imports can be cut.”Translated by Kaustubh Dhital from the Nepali language original in Himal Khabar: https://www.himalkhabar.com/news/125548

Nepal less and less able to feed itself

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221110141132/636cfdb39c7e80680e0a0bfcjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="3000" height="2000"/><figcaption>Photo: WWF NEPAL</figcaption></figure>As the Covid crisis pushes <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/the-real-cost-of-nepals-second-wave/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">millions of Nepalis back below the poverty line</a> affecting their nutritional status, the UK government is funding supplemental food for mothers and children affected by the monsoon and Covid-19 pandemic in Nepal.The additional £788,000 (Rs130 million) will allow the World Food Programme (WFP) to support 100,000 mothers and children with specialised nutritional supplement 'super cereal' for two months in eight districts in Province 2, Sunsari in Province 1, Jajarkot in Karnali and Kanchanpur in Far West. Mothers in target areas will also receive counselling on Covid-19 and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/hunger-for-governance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">nutrition</a>.“Natural hazards affect marginalised communities disproportionately, including women and children. Protecting the health of the Nepali people is a top priority for the UK Government,” says Nathanael Bevan, Director of Development at the British Embassy in Kathmandu. “The UK is glad to be supporting WFP’s efforts to make sure vulnerable Nepalis, especially mothers and children, receive proper food and nutrition.”The Covid crisis has reversed Nepal’s gains in poverty reduction and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-epidemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">childhood malnutrition</a> achieved in the past ten years.Children as well as pregnant and breastfeeding months in rural Nepal are among the hardest hit by the pandemic. Currently, over 15% of households in Nepal are food insecure, while around 39% of children between 6 to 23 months do not meet minimum dietary requirements.A WFP report earlier this year found that Nepal had up to 1.84 million pregnant and lactating women who were malnourished. This in turn affects the growth of their children as they receive <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-pandemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">inadequate nutrition</a> even before they are born.And as newborns they get mothers’ milk lacking in nutrition, leading to a greater risk of dying before the age of five. More than one-third of children under five face stunted growth.Many of the older children also relied on school lunches for a nutritious meals but <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/lessons-not-learned-from-the-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">prolonged school closure</a> means that they are also deprived of this.In addition to reduced food intake, children and young mothers have been <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/children-are-collateral-damage-in-nepal-lockdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">unable to access health services and immunisation facilities</a> for the better part of the last year and a half due to restrictions of the movement.“The pandemic and its socio-economic impact have put unrelenting pressure on Nepali families’ food security. Between December 2020 and June 2021, the number of households experiencing income loss has doubled – from 21 to 45% – making food increasingly out of reach for many,” says WFP Nepal Country director Jane Pearce. “This aid will enable us to reach the most vulnerable mothers and children whose lives have been made harder by Covid and now the monsoon.”Since the start of the first nationwide lockdown on 24 March 2020, and the subsequent widespread disruption to normal economic activity, Nepalis have faced increased strain on household income, directly <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/quarter-of-nepalis-still-hungry-during-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">impacting their food intake</a>.In fact, they have reported increased job losses and a reduction in income over the past year and a half. While in December 2020, 5% of households reported job loss, it was nearly 14% in June 2021. Similarly, 21% of households reported a reduction in income in December 2020 while it was 45% in June 2021.But most families have received <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/half-of-nepalis-lost-jobs-in-past-month/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">little to no support from the government</a> to tide them over the long months of pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.Moreover, Nepal is one of the most vulnerable countries to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/disasters-in-nepal-come-in-waves/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">natural calamities and the impacts of climate change</a>, tens of thousands of people are displaced by the floods and landslides every monsoon in lack of timely preparedness.A part of the contribution will also go to help WFP conduct a new round of cross-country household food security surveys. This funding is in addition to the £4.49 million (Rs678 million) WFP received from the UK Government in December 2020 towards the agency’s response to Covid-19.

UK aid for Nepali mothers and children

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121144/636b93019c7e80680e06f180jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1502" height="1000"/><figcaption>Mahendra Shrestha, 61, of Melamchi Bazar breaks down as he surveys the damage to his house on Wednesday. Photo: AMIT MACHAMASI</figcaption></figure>Nepal sits upon a pyramid of problems: poverty, inequality, exclusion, domestic violence, social injustice, l<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-epidemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ack of food</a> ... the list is long.On top of all that, for more than a year now, Nepalis have struggled with the health and economic emergency set off by the pandemic. And this week, we suffered floods that killed at least 25 — mostly in the same areas affected by the 2015 earthquakes.Meanwhile, Nepal’s predominantly rain-fed agriculture is affected by extreme weather events exacerbated by the climate crisis. Nepal had the <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNG7snQxuyb8ljJ-v8_vj85fB3rJtg">worst wildfire season</a> in living memory this spring. Right across the Himalayan foothills, the mountains burned from November till March – and at its peak there were nearly 2,000 fires raging out of control.The scorched earth barely had time to regenerate when <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/monsoon-hits-nepal-with-a-bang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/monsoon-hits-nepal-with-a-bang/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNF6XySMZiv3mcpFc2sspLEcF7C1MQ">the monsoon arrived this week with a bang</a>. A low-pressure system lingered over Central Nepal 13-16 June, dumping record precipitation, much of it in the trans-Himalayan region which is supposed to be in the rain-shadow. The denuded slopes could not hold the water, and the runoff surged into rivers washing away homes, bridges, roads and hydropower plants.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121144/636b93049c7e80680e06f181jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1174" height="770"><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Disasters are of two kinds: ‘natural’ calamities that hit without warning, and slow-moving ones that worsen incrementally. Earthquakes, floods and landslides get all the media attention — especially if there are good social media visuals. News, by definition, has to be unexpected, preferably sudden and with lots of casualties in one place.Journalism is less prepared to cover lingering crises, where thousands die over time, silently and scattered across remote areas of the country. The fact that half the country’s children suffer some form of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/editorial/hunger-for-governance/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">malnutrition is a disaster</a>  So are the high maternal and neonatal mortality rates. These are silent emergencies.We chronicle the daily Covid-19 death toll, but there are no headlines that say dozens of children died yesterday all over Nepal due to preventable causes. There is no one doing that daily tally, and announcing it in a press briefing.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121144/636b93079c7e80680e06f182jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2244" height="1122"><figcaption>Aerial view of the Melamchi Water Supply Project headworks is covered in mud after Tuesday's flashflood. Eight staff, including Indian and Chinese nationals are missing. Photo: SHER BAHADUR TAMANG</figcaption></figure><a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/dont-just-blame-god-for-floods-and-landslides/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/dont-just-blame-god-for-floods-and-landslides/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHKPr6SuzZQataATHZkSSug0XBLuA">Natural disasters are not natural</a>. Floods by themselves do not ‘wreak havoc’, they do so when houses are allowed to be built along floodplains. This week’s floods in Manang, Mustang, Kaski, Sindhupalchok were not unexpected. The intensity of rain may have been beyond our control, but preparing for a flood in a high-risk zone should have been.<a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/sindhupalchok-losing-hope%20,2224" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=http://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/sindhupalchok-losing-hope%2520,2224&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE3Asf_cnEe616L_p7i6YacCKXJnA">Sindhupalchok</a> was hit by both the 25 April and 12 May <a href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/being-prepared-for-monsoon-and-outbreaks,2293" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/being-prepared-for-monsoon-and-outbreaks,2293&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGldHe3LcBfv9vWQUhfUXZhfPWjmQ">earthquakes in 2015, </a>which caused massive landslides. Haphazard road-building on fragile slopes increased the danger, and one of these landslides blocked the Melamchi about 3 km upstream from the headworks of the water supply project. A similar slope failure dammed the Indrawati.When it burst, the Melamchi Khola swept into the water supply project camp, and eight people including six Indian and Chinese and two Nepali workers are missing. Downstream, two more bodies have been found and 17 are more unsccounted for. Luckily, the 26.5km tunnel bringing water to Kathmandu from Melamchi had been closed a few hours before for inspection, and this saved the project from major damage.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121144/636b930a9c7e80680e06f183jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2110" height="1388"><figcaption>The Melamchi Khola was dammed by a landslide 3km upstream from the tunnel intake. Photo: SHER BAHADUR TAMANG</figcaption></figure>The torrent of liquid mud on both rivers arrived simultaneously at their confluence in Melamchi Bazar. Geographer Narendra Khanal has traced the Indrawati River blockage to a point 20km upstream. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology monitoring station shows the Indrawati flowing at 4.7m at 4OM on 15 June, decreasing to 3m, and then shooting up to 6m at 6:45PM.“This is an indication that the river was blocked upstream in an area with major landslides after the 2015 earthquake, and suddenly the water broke through,” Khanal explains.T<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-valley-suffers-quadruple-disaster/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-valley-suffers-quadruple-disaster/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNHl03Z5EnJptFLNkk3GSzcew1FCVw">he river overflowed into Melamchi Bazar</a> at high velocity because much of the sand and boulders that would have slowed it down had been mined by construction contractors.He says none of the glacial lakes in the Jugal Himal appear to have burst. Although this was fortunate, it also shows how much more catastrophic future floods can be if <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/danger-nepals-glacial-lakes-are-filling-up/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/danger-nepals-glacial-lakes-are-filling-up/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGpEfjfrRnTUfi0zqzCpVxtkmmU-A">expanding Himalayan lakes formed by global warming burst</a>.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121144/636b930c9c7e80680e06f184jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1440" height="1074"><figcaption>Google Map showing the Melamchi and Indrawati Rivers and the location of landslide dams. Illustration: NARENDRA KHANAL</figcaption></figure>The reason for the loss of property was not the flood itself, but unplanned construction on the floodplain. Luckily, Ward 11 Chair Rudra Dulal in Melamchi Bazar had advance information about the incoming flood and moved 100 families out of harm's way after informing police to begin evacuation.“We received an early warning and we mobilised our team, informed everyone. This is the only reason why we didn’t have any casualties in our community,” Dulal says.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121144/636b93109c7e80680e06f185jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="1686" height="656"><figcaption>Measurements on the Indrawati on the evening of 15 June showed how the water level dropped and rose suddenly, indicating that the river was dammed upstream. Graph: DoHM</figcaption></figure>Elsewhere, at least 12 under-construction hydropower plants have been badly damaged. The worst hit was a 44MW project nearing completion on the Madi Khola in Kaski. The powerhouse and headworks were hit, while 15 excavators, tipper trucks and other vehicles washed away. Other functioning private and government hydropower plants in Central Nepal have either been shutdown as a precaution, or have been damaged.<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-braces-for-monsoon-pandemic-double-hit/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/nepal-braces-for-monsoon-pandemic-double-hit/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNE1lKvl7D25KSM42Af5nLcpa0I1MQ">None of this was unexpected.</a> Anil Pokhrel of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority (NDRRMA) had warned last week that weather modellers had predicted that this year’s monsoon would be above average in Nepal. What could not be forecast was how much more rain there would be, and which districts would be most vulnerable.Indeed, areas of the Himalayan rain shadow which usually lie north of the mountains and receive scanty rainfall, were also bad affected after continuous rain for 24 hours from Monday till Tuesday afternoon.Pokhrel of the NDRRMA had <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/a-disaster-resilient-nepal-is-possible/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/opinion/a-disaster-resilient-nepal-is-possible/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNGXs55ZclYXxCduK6EEyQl0Crdbfw">written in Nepali Times</a> last week: “<a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/wildfires-ravage-nepal-mountains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/wildfires-ravage-nepal-mountains/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFbSPEJs2UX-K7QIAOTig451h4l5A">Wildfires that raged for months</a> burnt through forest-shrub cover, undermining the ability of mountain slopes to absorb rainfall and prevent soil erosion. This could potentially result in more landslides and floods.”<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121144/636b93129c7e80680e06f186jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2081" height="1260"><figcaption>Weather modelling by the South Asia Climate Outlook Forum last month showed that the 2021 monsoon would be above normal in most parts of Nepal. Source: NDRRMA</figcaption></figure>Last year was <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/deadly-monsoon-in-nepal-turns-deadlier/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/deadly-monsoon-in-nepal-turns-deadlier/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEDVMmcO2dZ90k97FCI0k-ydO2hNw">the worst monsoon season</a> in the past two decades in terms of casualties: there were 500 major landslides, nearly 300 killed and 70 missing. Most of the landslides were, again, in Sindhupalchok and were blamed on <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-deadliest-monsoon-in-recent-times/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepals-deadliest-monsoon-in-recent-times/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNH4Q6nXwNjQTaXeXHnXeFPJ9JHJfw">poor and unregulated road construction </a>that disturbed the slopes.A cyclonic circulation over northern India means the rains have continued along the Himalayan foothills, and it is forecast to continue through the weekend. In Melamchi Bazar, there was fresh warning of inundation and people were evacuated on Thursday afternoon.As the monsoon progresses, much of the flood action will shift to the Tarai. There, too, this year the floods will 'wreak havoc'. And again, the submergence will largely be due to constriction of rivers by embankments, settlements along flood plains, perimeter walls that act as dams, and the denudation and destruction of the Chure Range.There was a flood of recrimination last year, many <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/in-nepal-either-too-much-or-too-little-water/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer" data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/in-nepal-either-too-much-or-too-little-water/&amp;source=gmail&amp;ust=1624001295575000&amp;usg=AFQjCNFQI0_rIuaafLfQ4j-eHmMPV_JmRg">commentators lamented the lack of oversight. </a>But there has been no let-up in destructive road-building. This week, Nepal’s seven provinces passed budgets in which most of their revenue is going to be derived from quarry and sand-mining contractors allowed to unsustainably exploit natural resources. The government has allowed river valleys and the fragile Chure <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/here-now/the-nature-of-pandemics/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">to be mined for stone exports to India</a>.With politicians distracted by one upmanship, and federalism not functioning because of micro-management by parties in Kathmandu, this season of disasters will be talked about for a while. Until next year’s monsoon.

Disasters in Nepal come in waves

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121144/636b92f49c7e80680e06f17bjpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2550" height="1429"/><figcaption></figcaption></figure>Nepal has had one emergency heaped on top of another for more than a year now. The Covid-19 emergency, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepal-is-going-up-in-smoke/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wildfires</a>, and <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/monsoon-hits-nepal-with-a-bang/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">now floods</a>.Political flux in Kathmandu continues to undermine the state’s ability to respond adequately. But this is nothing new. The most glaring governance failure of Nepal’s rulers for the past decades has been their incompetence in being able to ensure nutrition for its youngest citizens.Be it during the absolute and constitutional monarchy days, the post-democracy period or now, in the new federal system, the state has failed abjectly in its primary responsibility to fulfil the most basic of all human rights – access to adequate food.Nepal did reduce childhood stunting from 57% to 36% in the two decades after 1990. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nearly-half-of-nepali-children-still-malnourished/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">But progress stalled</a> because of the conflict and political upheavals. Nearly a third of Nepali children are still stunted due to lack of adequate food, 12% are wasted, and 24% low weight.The statistics are shocking. Nepal’s hunger hotspots are Far Western Province where 41% of children are stunted, and in Province 2 where 34% of children have low height due to lack of food. A survey in May by Sharecast Initiative and UNICEF shows that one in five families across Nepal <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepalis-eating-less-due-to-lockdown-hardships/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reduced the quantity of meals</a> their children ate during the lockdown.Children have so far been largely spared by the SARS-CoV-2 virus and its variants, but they have become <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/children-are-collateral-damage-in-nepal-lockdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">collateral damage in the pandemic</a>. Schools have been closed for most of the past year, and half the students had no access to distance learning. Immunisation drives against pre-existing killer diseases have been disrupted.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/half-of-nepalis-lost-jobs-in-past-month/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">More than half of Nepalis lost their jobs</a> in the past month amidst the second wave, and loss of household income has led directly to insufficient food for children.Hunger is Nepal’s real national epidemic and rampant malnutrition pre-dated the Covid-19 outbreak. The pandemic has undermined the country’s past gains in battling childhood malnutrition.To meet its UN sustainable Development Goals (SDG) targets, Nepal has to reduce stunting well below 15% and wasting and low weight to less than 5% in the next nine years. At the present rate, we will not meet those goals.Horrific as the statistics are, zooming down to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nepals-epidemic-of-hunger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ground level in Dhanusha and Mahottari districts</a> of Province 2, our Saglo Samajtv magazine report this week shows how much worse things have got during the lockdowns.Despite Nepal being declared open-defecation free amidst much fanfare, Dalit and other marginalised communities in Dhanusha and Mahottari do not have toilets. If they do have one, there is no running water or soap. They use the same village pond for both humans and cattle, for cleaning and drinking. Things are not much better in pockets in the western mountains. Gastric infections compound malnutrition.The least the government could do is equitably distribute the ‘nutrition allowance’ allocated for the Dalit families and educate the communities on the basics of <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/toilet-trained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sanitation and hygiene</a>.Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres for severely malnourished children must be set up closer to the communities so that the neediest can access the service. The annual budget on nutrition should be increased so that local health posts have sufficient supplements and micronutrients for new mothers and their children.The government’s Multi-Sector Nutrition Plan has not delivered as expected, tangled up over jurisdiction under the new federal structure. But it could just as easily deploy Female Community Health Volunteers, and local representatives to discourage <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/child-marriage-in-nepal-eloped-at-13-mother-by-17/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">child marriage</a> that feeds the vicious cycle of malnutrition and high maternal and child deaths.Malnutrition is <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/junk-food-is-making-nepali-children-shorter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more than the availability of food</a> and access to clean water, it is also confronting patriarchy, casteism and gender discrimination. It is a result of poor governance, lack of accountability and corruption.But nothing is stopping newly-empowered local governments with technical and financial backing from the centre to now achieve results that Kathmandu’s past centralised governments could not. Training of farmers on climate-smart agriculture, and leasing land to the landless is a good place to start.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://archive.nepalitimes.com/article/nation/the-face-of-hunger-debt-malnutrition,3604" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Children are hungry</a> because of poverty. Their families are poor because of state neglect. We must draw that causal link between lack of food and failure to deliver it by elected representatives. That is the real scandal the evening news bulletins should be highlighting.

Hunger for governance

<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121140/636b927e9c7e80680e06f150jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2552" height="1422"/><figcaption>Photos: SAGLO SAMAJ/HIMALMEDIA</figcaption></figure>There are 34 households in Mohattarai’s Anaita neighbourhood, most of them have at least four children each. In the last three years, three children in the community have died due to <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/nearly-half-of-nepali-children-still-malnourished/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">complications from the lack of food</a>.Raju Devi Sada first lost her three-year-old daughter, already weakened by malnutrition, who died a week after she caught pneumonia and diarrhoea.“We spent quite a bit of money for her treatment in hospital, but we couldn’t save her,” says Raju Devi, wiping a tear with the hem of her sari. A year later, she gave birth to another daughter. But she died soon after being born.“I don’t even know why she died,” says Raju Devi, who is now raising her third daughter.The little girl is underweight and local health workers have recommended nutritious food. But Raju Devi cannot afford the vegetables, eggs, milk and meat, and what she earns as a daily wage labourer is barely enough to feed the rest of the family.“What we make is not sufficient to pay for food, let alone medicines,” adds Raju Devi, looking at her youngest girl, who reminds her so much of the other two daughters who did not make it. “A mother never forgets her children, even if they are dead.”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d73CU1U8wIUHunger has always stalked the land here in the backwaters of the eastern plains of Nepal. State neglect, inequality and injustice have unleashed a vicious cycle where <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/food-for-thought-for-nepals-nutrition-planners/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">families are too poor to eat enough</a>, which makes them sick, and having to spend on medical treatment drives them deeper into poverty and that means they can afford less food.The first and second waves of the Covid-19 pandemic arrived in these districts bordering India before it spread across Nepal. <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/covid-19-leaves-millions-of-south-asian-children-hungry/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Four months of lockdown in 2020</a>, and two months so far this year have meant that subsistence farmers like Raju Devi’s family have lost what little they could earn to buy extra food for the children.At the nearby Manorasisuwa neighbourhood, Sagar Devi Sada spends her day caring for her grandchildren, both of them visibly malnourished. Her eldest grandson is four-and-half years old and is so weak he cannot even stand on his feet. He has poor eyesight and is mute, but the family can afford neither more food nor treatment.A few weeks ago, a community health worker gave Sagar Devi some packets of the supplementary food, Balvita, but she has run out of those by now.“We built this house, but we haven’t paid our loans, we don’t have money for anything else, it’s up to the gods now,” says Sagar Devi in a resigned voice. “Their father makes some money but doesn’t provide for them, and their mother abandoned them. If not for me, these boys would be dead.”In Manorasisuwa alone, 17 <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/children-are-collateral-damage-in-nepal-lockdown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">children</a> have so far been diagnosed with severe malnutrition. And this is just one neighbourhood of one village in Nepal -- a microcosm of what is happening across the country during this pandemic.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121144/636b92819c7e80680e06f151jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2529" height="1427"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>Even before this crisis, the lack of food was already the biggest cause of childhood illness and death, and parts of Nepal have rates of malnutrition that are highest in the world. Complications due to malnutrition cause more than half the childhood deaths in the country, according to a UNICEF report.In addition to the risk of losing their lives, children with malnutrition have stunted physical and mental growth, are severely underweight, and their immune system is compromised.<a style="font-size: 15px; letter-spacing: 0.01em;" href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/1-in-5-nepal-families-lack-food/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nepal’s hunger</a> hotspots are these districts in Province 2, and Sudur Paschim Province in Nepal’s far-western mountains. The 2019 Nepal Multiple Indicator Cluster survey found that 41% of children in Sudur Paschim Province are short for their age, and 34% of children in Province 2 are similarly stunted. The survey showed that a third of Nepali children show signs of stunting due to lack of food, and 12% are wasted, and 24% low weight.“We have found that up to 70% of children who die every year in Province 2 do so due to malnutrition, and the main reason for that is extreme poverty,” says Kedar Parajuli at Nepal’s Family Welfare Division. “Without alleviating poverty, we can’t solve malnutrition. And to do that these families need more land to farm, or a means of livelihood.”But <a href="http://archive.nepalitimes.com/news.php?id=570#.XcJAUtIza70" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">malnutrition</a> is not just about food availability. Many children even from better off families suffer from poor nutrition because of chronic diarrhoea caused by contaminated water, poor sanitation and hygiene.In October 2019, amidst much fanfare, Nepal was officially declared the first <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/banner/toilet-trained/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">open defecation-free</a> country in South Asia. But here in Ramdaiya village of Dhanusha district that is noticeably not true.There are 150 households from the Musahar community in the village, and half of them malnourished children. None of them have a proper latrine, with villagers using nearby fields. The village pond is used for drinking, washing, bathing and cleaning utensils, as well as a buffalo wallow.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121144/636b92859c7e80680e06f152jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2550" height="1426"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>But Ramdaiya was declared open defecation-free two years ago after distributing toilet sets to all the wards. No latrines were built.Sri Narayan Sada is daily wage labour, and has a family of seven but no land. His two-year-old son is scrawny, and has all the symptoms of severe malnutrition: frequent diarrhoea, swollen stomach and skeletal limbs. “I don’t know what’s wrong with my son, only the gods know,” he says.Assistant health worker Aruna Yadav says the child is underweight and is mentally retarded. She says the father earns Rs500 a day but spends half of it on alcohol, the rest goes to buy food, but it is not enough for the whole family.Poverty, hunger, patriarchy, caste and gender discrimination make a dangerous concoction in these villages. As a result, most girls are <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/nepal-child-marriages-spike-during-pandemic/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">married before pubescence</a>. By the time the severely undernourished girls are in their mid-teens, they have already given birth to their first child – making it risky for both mother and baby.The young mothers have never been taught about taking care of their health, or that of their children. Most do not know the kind of diet and supplements that pregnant and lactating mothers need, and even if they did, cannot afford them.The Nepal government is supposed to provide Rs400 per Dalit family as a ‘nutrition allowance’. But the families in Ramdaiya in Dhanusa and Monorasisuwa in Mahottari interviewed for this report had not got even that paltry amount for the past two years because they did not know how to work the system.The government also implemented a Multi-sector Nutrition Plan to revive a successful program that saw dramatic strides in the last 20 years in raising family food intake the first two decades before the progress stalled. But the plan has got tangled up over jurisdiction under Nepal’s new federal structure.If things were not serious enough, <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/the-lost-covid-generation/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">the Covid-19 pandemic has set back</a> even the few inroads Nepal had made in tackling malnutrition. According to the Nepal Planning Commission, last year’s pandemic-induced lockdowns pushed 4% of Nepalis back below the poverty line.A recent John Hopkins School of Public Health study concluded that severe malnutrition among children under five during the pandemic could kill up to 4,000 children a year in Nepal due to insufficient food caused by lost family income.<figure><img src="https://superdesk-pro-c.s3.amazonaws.com/sd-nepalitimes/20221109121144/636b92889c7e80680e06f153jpeg.jpg" alt="" width="2550" height="1429"><figcaption> </figcaption></figure>This is already visible at the community level. Nutrition Rehabilitation Centres across Nepal is seeing an alarming rise in severely malnourished cases, much higher than the yearly average.“We recently admitted five cases of underweight children with very severe malnutrition, we rarely used to see such children,” says Karuna Yadav at a Nutrition Rehabilitation Centre in Janakpur. “And these are just cases that come to us, we have not even conducted camps or gone house-to-house yet.”There are 21 centres like this one in Janakpur that treat severe malnutrition across Nepal, but they are not easily accessible to poorer families who usually live out of the way.The UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) require Nepal to reduce wasting to less than 5% by 2030. Stunting needs to be well below 15% in 10 years to meet the global target. Even the little progress Nepal has made in this regard is now jeopardised by the pandemic.Says Kedarraj Parajuli of the Family Welfare Division. “Given inter-generational nature of malnutrition, we are focusing on what we call the 1,000 golden days after birth by promoting supplementary food and creating awareness.”But it is easy to see that <a href="https://www.nepalitimes.com/latest/covid-19-to-reverse-child-survival-gains/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">malnutrition is a structural problem</a> that has deep political and socio-economic factors that are rooted in poor governance, corruption and ingrained cultural inequities. A piecemeal approach that just addresses nutrition, sanitation, environment and development must be replaced with more accountable national, provincial and local government. But given the chronic political instability and lack of political will, that is a tall order.Says nutrition policy expert Atmaram Pandey: “Nepal doesn’t lack resources, but they are taken up by a faulty development model that wastes it all on viewtowers and unnecessary roads. Nepal’s chronic malnutrition can only be reduced with a more responsive state that generates jobs so the poorest have more money to buy food for their children.”

malnutrition