KATHMANDU: Severe and interminable drought, sustained high prices of food and the global economic crisis have tripled the number of food insecure people in Nepal over the last three years, United Nations said here today unveiling a situation report, issue

No. 55 covering the period between November 1 to 30, 2009.

An additional 300,000 Nepalis, from a total of 3.7 million, are facing food insecurity because of the poor harvest this summer, it stated.

The monthly report of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of

Humanitarian Affairs further stated that at an aggregate level, food security will slightly improve over the next two months because ofthe summer paddy harvest, but warned that hundreds of thousands of the poorest subsistence farmers in the Mid and Far West will continue to reel under acute shortage.

“As the winter approaches, poor yield of paddy crops in India and other neighbouring countries in the region will push food prices even higher leading to increased vulnerability in early 2010,” stated the report.