Seven districts in Karnali found food insecure, about 23,000 tonnes of food shortage annually

By Our Correspondent, Surkhet, Apr. 28: Seven out of 10 districts of Karnali Province are found food insecure districts every year. Those districts are seen as insecure districts as more than 23,000 tonnes of food is in short supply annually.  Jumla, Kalikot, Humla, Mugu, Dolpa, Rukum West and Jajarkot are food insecure districts while Surkhet, Dailekh and Salyan only are food secure districts of Karnali.

According to Directorate of Agricultural Development, Surkhet, around 23,434 tonnes of food grains are insufficient in seven districts of Karnali every year.  According to the National Census 2078, the population of Karnali Province is 1,688,412. Based on this figure, one person in Karnali needs 201 kg of food grains annually. But now the annual production is 320,890 tonnes in the province.

Karnali Province needs 344,324 tonnes of food to become self-sufficient in food. Tilak Prasad Pandey, agriculture extension officer of Directorate of Agriculture Department, said that in order to make the other seven districts self-sufficient in food grains, apart from Surkhet, Dailekh and Salyan, around 350,000 tons of food grains are required.

Around 91,033 tonnes of food grains are produced in Surkhet. According to the Directorate, 4,867 tonnes of food grains are in surplus in Surkhet. 

Similarly, in Salyan, around 47,788 tonnes of food grains are required annually, while the production is 52,374 tonnes. 

Likewise, around 56,812 tonnes of food grains are produced annually in Dailekh. While Dailekh needs 50,361 tonnes of food. 

Seven other districts have not become self-sufficient in food so far.

According to the Directorate, annually 5,099 tonnes of food grains in Dolpa, 8,565 in Humla, 6,439 tonnes in Mugu, 3,500 tonnes in Jumla, 10,317 tonnes in Kalikot, 1,615 tonnes in Rukum West and 4,299 tonnes in Jajarkot are short annually. 

Director of Directorate of Agriculture Development, Karnali Province Chitra Bahadur Rokaya said that various programmes are being conducted to make the province self-sufficient in food grains. 

For that, potato, vegetable, ginger, bee keeping, mushroom cultivation promotion programmes have been conducted under the pocket development programme in the province, he said. 

By constructing 372 agricultural irrigation systems, 5,580 hectares have been received irrigation facilities, he said and added that about 7,600 people have received partial employment. 

He said that efforts were being made to increase production and guarantee marketing by conducting special agricultural and income-generating programmes for the Dalit, extremely poor and targeted groups.