book1

Some 40 percent of the popula� on does not have access to minimum
calorie requirement, with a higher propor� on in the Mountain regions
(45%) followed by Hills (42%) and Terai region (37%) 7 . People in the high
mountains and western hills are more vulnerable and experience higher
frequency of food shortages than the Terai and eastern parts of the country 8 .
In most remote mid- and far- western hill and mountain districts, local food
produc� on some� mes covers just three months of annual household needs,
aff ec� ng almost two third of the popula� on 9 .
Causes of Food Insecurity: Social Exclusion and Poverty Nexus
Globally, food insecurity is largely a situa� on created not by lack of food
but by poverty and exclusion which deny people access to food. This is true
for Nepal as well. Nepal when acheived self-suffi ciency in food produc� on,
s� ll failed to avoid hunger and malnutri� on at household and individual level.
Even in the current year na� onal sta� s� cs show that domes� c produc� on of
edible cereal grains is more than adequate to feed every Nepalese 10 . S� ll,
more than a quarter of total popula� on of the country goes to bed hungry
every day. Therefore, food security challenge is not to just produce enough
food but ensure required level of food energy intake at household level.
Food insecurity is a ques� on of mal-distribu� on of resources and
inequality. The resource-poor are hungry and malnourished not because
there is no food but because they cannot aff ord the food. Therefore, it is not
the ma� er that suffi cient food is produced, but who produces it and for the
benefi t of whom.
Hunger and poverty are closely interlinked and interdependent
phenomena. Inadequate access to produc� ve resources such as land,
irriga� on, seeds, inputs, credits and markets or other sustained means of
incomes is the root cause of hunger and malnutri� on. Poor have denied
access to such resources and services. Social exclusion is one of the main
causes of poverty. Hunger is the obvious manifesta� on of poverty and
poverty itself is an outcome of systemic exclusion. Social exclusion primarily
driven by ins� tu� ons and processes on the basis of gender, ethnicity, caste
and geography uphold or exacerbate income- and capacity-poverty. The
ethnic, indigenous, tribal and occupa� onal caste groups and women have
con� nuously been excluded from socio-cultural and economic mainstream
of the country. As a result, ability of these excluded communi� es to access
and control over produc� ve resources and opportuni� es is extremely limited
in Nepal resul� ng into persistent poverty and hunger.
Land is the principal source of livelihoods in rural Nepal. Unfortunately,
7. NPC (2007). Three Year Interim Plan (2006/7-2009/10 ). Na� onal Planning Commission,
Singhadurbar, Kathmandu, Nepal.
8. Na� onal Planning Commission (2010). Nepal Millennium Development Goals Progress
Report
9. ibid
10. Preliminary es� mate of MoAC as of October 2011 (Personal Communica� on with MoAC
authori� es)
Changing paradigms of aid eff ec� veness in Nepal 169