Food shortage ahead of Dashain
NEPALGUNJ: People in the hilly districts of the Mid-Western Region are reeling under an acute shortage of foodstuff ahead of the Dashain festival.
The situation has been resulted due to long spell of drought which prompted to poor yield of crops. The local residents in these districts have been on the verge of starvation as the foodstuff distributed under the food-for-work programme by the World Food Programme (WFP) was halted a couple of months ago. To make the matter worse, the food in Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) depot in Nepalgunj and Surkhet could not be supplied to the districts due to adverse weather condition.
“Demand of rice has been increasing in most of the districts in the region,” said Harihar Shrestha, acting chief of NFC, Nepalgunj, adding that the demand obviously go high during the Dashain.
“In first place, the produce was very poor, especially in Humla. And now, there is problem to supply food,” he said. According to him, the problem in Humla and Mugu is serious as the only way to send foods there is via air. Though the NFC supplies rice to hilly districts every year, the rice does not reach targeted population in the rural areas, locals lament. “The rice, which is sold by the local shopkeepers, is also limited to the district headquarters and adjoining areas,” said one.
So much so, some of the locals in Humla are reported saying that they do not possess the rice even to prepare Tika this Dashain.
“Though the government is increasing the quota of rice to be supplied in these hilly districts every year, it is insufficient in proportionate to the population growth,” Shrestha said.
According to him, over 1,228 quintals of rice was supplied to Humla, 1,054 to Mugu, 1,000 to Dolpa, 1,766 to Bajura and 1,092 to Dailekh this year. Similarly, Jajarkot and Rolpa districts got 600 and 200 quintals of rise from the NFC, respectively, this year. Shrestha said that attempts were underway to prevent the possible food crisis in the districts.