Agriculture, food security and poverty alleviation

The global food production is sufficient to feed the world population. But hunger exists and tens of thousands of people die of hunger and malnutrition annually in the world. A part of the world dumps the surplus food into the ocean while other parts of the world starve and suffer from chronic hunger. It is not the question of how much the world produces but it is the issue that requires judicial distribution of food to all and fair access to production resources for the people from the lowest economic strata.

The global food balance sheet shows that over 850 million people in the world are undernourished. To look at the present pattern of food consumption, 15 per cent people consume more than 60 per cent food in the world, while 85 per cent people live on less than 40 per cent of food the world produces. The situation, thus, underscores the dire need for taking more concerted and effective measures for food security to ensure that poor people get food even at a time of crisis and save tens of thousands lives, who otherwise would die of starvation.

The world is now gearing up to meet the millennium development goals by 2015 that includes reducing global poverty by at least half. The world, of course, has the resources required to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) including eradication of extreme poverty and hunger by 2015, provided these resources were judiciously managed and distributed. Unless hunger was eradicated through the increased production and fair distribution of resources, guarantee of access to food for the absolute poor and food security, it would be a mirage for the global community to achieve the lofty goal of meeting the minimum basic needs of people by 2015.

The poor countries and poor people in the world are always vulnerable in terms of food security. Although the case of Nepal hitherto is not as acute as in the Sub-Saharan regions of Africa where thousands of people mostly women and children die of famine and hunger every year, the situation is not positive and encouraging either. The dependency on food import is growing despite the rise in cultivable land.

Nepal is a poor country with a large chunk of population living below poverty line. Over 80 per cent people depend on agriculture for survival. The majority of farmers are poor, who are often vulnerable in terms of food security and suffer from hunger and malnutrition. About 25 per cent people in about 40 districts of Nepal suffer from hunger. The condition of women and children is even worse. It is estimated that about 50 per cent children suffer from malnutrition and malnourishment in Nepal of which 18.3 per cent are under 3 years of age. About 45 per cent people in Nepal are believed to consume less than the required daily calories. Thousands of infants are born with low weight, which is attributed to the malnourishment of the pregnant mothers.

The food insecurity may be worse this year as food grain production is expected to decline by at least by 300,000 metric tones due to poor monsoon. The growing vulnerability, thus, underscores the need for taking immediate and effective measures to maintain adequate food security at both national as well as local level.

The concept of food security is a new phenomenon in Nepal. Being an agricultural country, Nepal did not feel necessary to have food reserve and ensure food security. The Food Corporation was created to maintain food reserve and distribute it in food deficit areas at subsidized prices. But its services have often been ad hoc and bureaucratic red tape, political interference and lack of transparency have tarnished its image and weakened its performance. Moreover, the traditional notion of food security is not sufficient in the present context. Food security does not mean making food available alone. The concept of food security is the guarantee of making the healthy and nutrient food available and accessible for all the needy people at local level and at affordable prices when it is needed.

The agricultural productivity is low in Nepal. Until 1960s, the agricultural productivity is one of the highest in South Asia. But it is one of the lowest at present. It is owing to lack of sufficient irrigation, unavailability of agricultural inputs in time, poor knowledge on modern farming system, poor communications, low purchasing power, high cost for cultivation and scarcity of labour. The farmers are slowly loosing interest in agriculture due to low productivity and high production costs and the food growers are either switching over to high-value cash crops from the food grain production or seeking an alternative profession. This is more in the hilly areas than in Terai. While the production costs are high, farmers hardly get the fair price at the absence of market for their products. Even if farmers sell their products at cheaper prince, the products are priced high when they reach the consumers. Neither farmers nor the consumers are benefited. The real profit goes to the middlemen.

Moreover, the agriculture is poor men’s job in Nepal, which is often neglected. With large number of youth population leaving villages and country for other jobs, the agricultural sector now is facing labour crunch. The armed conflict has further exacerbated the problem. As a result, a sizable part of the land has been left barren both in hills and Terai. A study has shown that the country has lost almost 30 per cent of annual food production due to the tendency of leaving the land uncultivated. This is also a reason why production has declined and food insecurity is on the rise. The government needs to take necessary step to ensure that no land remains uncultivated, which would not only add to nation income but also, to some extent, contribute to food security. 

Poverty and agriculture are interlinked in Nepal. Agriculture is a rural phenomenon and poverty is also largely concentrated in rural areas. As poverty eradication has been Nepal’s sole strategy to uplift the social and economic condition of the people, the goal cannot be achieved without bringing about revolution in the agriculture sector. Agriculture revolution is also necessary to ensure food security and save people from hunger and malnutrition. As an agricultural based economy, Nepal can hardly reach closer to achieving the millennium development goals without improving the performance in agricultural sector. Given the lackluster performance in the agriculture sector, the goal of reducing poverty is destined to fail. If we fail in reducing poverty, no other millennium goals could be attained as all other programmes are linked with the poverty alleviation scheme.

Right to life is the first and the foremost human right of the people. The right to life can be ensured only when we guarantee the right to food. At the absence of sufficient food security and fair distribution, the right to food, which is an important part of right to life, cannot be realized.

In this modern world, knowledge is power. The knowledge is gained though the exchange of information and experience sharing. In this age of information and communication, no sector can remain aloof from the revolution in the filed of information and communication. But one of the problems in Nepal’s agriculture sector is the poor communication. Nepal’s agricultural sector and farmers also need to take advantage from the information revolution for better output and improve their overall condition.

The farmers and food growers are neglected by communication media as well. Despite agriculture occupying lion’s share in Nepal’s economy, employment, food security, trade and industry, this sector has so far attracted the least attention from Nepal’s mass media. A cursory review on media coverage of Nepal’s leading national dailies, revealed that politics is dominating the mass media, followed by economy (other than agriculture), entertainment and sports. Social issues got the least priority. If analysed in terms of percentage, the agriculture issues would be less than three per cent. It gets just a passing remark while reporting economic, environmental and other issues. The agro sector has hardly found place on the front page of the national newspapers let alone the cover/main story. So is with the national broadcasting media—agricultural issue never been the headline news of the national radio and television.

The reasons behind the poor media coverage of agricultural issues are manifold. Media is so far been an urban commercial venture rather than service oriented. The commercial media focuses more on sectors which could be commercially profitable for its business in terms of advertisement and other benefits. Farmers are mostly poor and farming is a rural phenomenon, which can not give commercial return to the media. Moreover, rural issues are of less priority for the commercial media. Secondly, the media houses are owned or controlled by the urban elites or businessmen and the media obliviously serve interest of their masters. Moreover, farming community lacks resources and farmers lack access to the media. The most important of all is the lack of knowledge. Farmers have the knowledge about the issues and problems of the agriculture but they cannot write and report. The media persons have the resources and skill of writing and reporting but have little knowledge about the real issues of the farmers and farming community. There is a huge gap between the media persons working in the mainstream media and the farmers. This is a grim reality of our agricultural country.

The gap between the media persons and the food producers must be bridged by imparting knowledge and forging coordination. Imparting knowledge should be in two ways. The media persons working in the mainstream media need to be given regular knowledge of agricultural issues, problems of the farmers and their remedies, while farming community should also be equipped with the knowledge of communication and skill of disseminating information. Development of farm media would, thus, be an alternative way to focus more on pro-farmer issues, act as a pool between the mass media and the farming community and mobilize the mass media for better and effective coverage of the issues relating to agriculture and food security.