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国家食品安全与营养政策
National Policies On Food Security And Nutrition
2011年尼泊尔人类发展指数在187个国家中排名157。尼泊尔54%的人口每天生活在不到1.25美元，50万人被认为是中度至严重的粮食不安全，尼泊尔是南亚最贫穷的国家，
全球饥饿指数（GHI）2011年报告由国际粮食政策研究所（IFPRI）已经把尼泊尔放在了第五十四的位置。尼泊尔一直被放在一个持续的饥饿基于数据显示16%的人口营养不良严重的位置，38.8%的儿童在五岁前死亡。
2011 Human Development Index ranks Nepal at 157 out of 187 countries. 54 percent of Nepal's population lives on less than US$ 1.25 per day, and three and half million people are considered moderately to severe food insecure, counting Nepal among the poorest countries in South Asia (WFP, 2009)
The Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2011 Report prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) has placed Nepal in the 54th position, up from 56 in 2010. Nepal has been put in a position of serious in persistent hunger based on data which shows 16 percent of the population to be undernourished, 38.8 percent of under-five children to be underweight and 4.8 percent of them dying before they reach five years of age (IFPRI, 2011).
to the criteria set by IFPRI, the index can vary between 0 and 100. A higher index indicates a higher prevalence of hunger. The severity of hunger is determined using the following thresholds:
World Food Programame has developed a sub regional hunger index for 15 sub regions of Nepal in 2009 which indicates the severity of the food insecurity in rural and remote areas although the aggregate index falls under serious category. The highest prevalence of hunger can be found in the Far-and Mid-Western Hill and Mountain regions. The NHIs in these parts of the country are close to or above 30, pointing to an extremely alarming situation. The majority of the fifteen sub-regions of Nepal fall within the alarming category with National Hunger Index (NHI) ranging between 20.0 and 29.9. Three sub-regions (Central Hills, Western Hills and Eastern Terai) have NHI between 10.0 and 19.9 indicating a serious food insecurity situation. Note that there is not a single sub-region in Nepal that falls within the moderate or low hunger-categories. This underscores the seriousness of the food security situation in Nepal (WFP, 2009)
Moreover, the GHI 2011 shows that fewer people are available to work on the farms, and most of the young people are migrating to foreign countries to work. "That is why agricultural labour is not sufficient, and some of the farm land is going to lie fallow. The result is that agricultural production is lower than before, and prices are rising," according to the report. The report combines three hunger-related indicators-the proportion of undernourished in the population, the prevalence of underweight in children and the mortality rate of children.
The IFPRI's future projections show a persistent shortfall in the domestic production of rice in Nepal to meet the total demand although the production depends on the monsoon as some years the harvest reported to be relatively good. Under the pessimistic set of conditions, rice demand in Nepal is projected to be more than double the domestic production in the year 2030. Given that rice is the major crop under cultivation as well as the predominant staple in the Nepali diet, this forecast deficit is a matter of concern. The IFPRI's estimates show that the large growth in the direct demand for rice is driven
mainly by the high growth in population between now and 2030 and not so much by a rise in per capita consumption (Kathmandu Post, Jan 20, 2012).
National Policies on Food Security and Nutrition
Nepal is primarily agriculture country providing employment for more than two-third of the population and contributing one-third to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The economy has historically been agrarian in nature, with its share in GDP ranging from
60% to 70% between the 1960s and early 1980s. With the various structural changes in mid 1980s, the contribution of agriculture in GDP started to decline. As a result, agriculture's share reduced from 51% in 1985 to about 40% in 2000, and to 35% in 2012 (Economic Survey 2012). The growth in agriculture remains low in Nepal as it is 4.9 percent in 2011/2012 while it was 4.5 percent in 2010/2011 (MoF, 2012).
Nature of problems
In the last 15 years, the agricultural sector of Nepal experienced several changes. The proportion of households operating agricultural holdings as well as the average size of the operated land has decreased. Out of the total households in the country, 74% are agricultural households with land and roughly 2% are agricultural households without land. Out of total households operating land, 58% are in the hills, 43% are in the Terai and 9% are in the mountains. The average size of agricultural land area in the country is
0.7 hectares. A majority of agricultural households depends on small farm size for cultivation. Of the total farmers about 53% are small farmers (operating less than 0.5 ha of land, other 4% are large, operating 2 ha and more land (NLSS, 2010/2011). Some changes in selected agricultural indicators are given in table 1 below:
Agriculture (including crop, livestock and fisheries) is the mainstay of the rural economy but its productivity is low. The agricultural productivity is one of the lowest in the South Asia region and has been virtually stagnant for over a decade. The situation is even worse in the rural and remote areas of Nepal where food production is barely enough to meet more than six months' demand. Thus, most people in the rural and remote areas are dependent on external/emergency food supply including the World Food Program. The continued food insecurity and lack of economic opportunities has triggered out-migration of youth form rural Nepal in search of employment opportunities resulted into the scarcity of labor force in agriculture in Nepal.
The agriculture sector faces a multiplicity of challenges that constrain its performance well below the potential. As indicated in Table 1, agriculture is typically characterized by small holder, traditional and subsistence farming; limited use of improved livestock breeds, crops varieties and management practices; and high susceptibility to pest and disease incidences. The nature of the problem includes: (i) low availability of good quality seed and improved breeds of livestock at the farmer level (the seed replacement ratio is 4.27% against GON target of 25% and, moreover, seeds used by farmers are often of outdated variety, and with low purity and germination rates; given the low base, seed quality enhancement alone can lead to an estimated yield increase of 15-20% in case of cereals, at least 20% in potato, 40-50% in oilseeds, and over 100% for maize; and finally, breed improvement can produce significant gains in livestock productivity);
(ii) insufficient development by the research system of "appropriate" - location and problem specific - technologies and management practices for use by farmers that tap topographic and climatic advantages or address local constraints;
(iii) weak research-extension-farmer linkage;
(iv) thin and inadequate extension support (even after significant enhancement in recent years, less than 15% of farm households are reached by the extension system; and each Agricultural Service Centre - the lowest, sub-district extension node - covers approximately 9000 holdings, dispersed over a difficult terrain);
(v) low investment in productive assets, including supplementary irrigation infrastructure to reduce rain-dependence;
(vi) poorly developed market linkages; and
(vii) a lack of institutions and instruments for agricultural risk-bearing and risk-sharing. Budgetary and staff resources for public research (the Nepal Agricultural Research Council or NARC) and extension agencies (Departments of Agriculture and of Livestock Services) are stretched.
Policies on agriculture and food security
A number of polices have guided the agricultural sector of Nepal. The Agriculture Perspective Plan (APP) 1995 has been the major policy document for the agriculture development in Nepal. However, implementation of APP was weak and APP was not adapted to the changing contexts in terms of labour, markets, and infrastructure for agricultural development. APP was updated through the National Agricultural Policy (NAP) (2006). NAP focuses on commercialization, private sector-led development, and trade. The Agricultural Biodiversity Policy (2007) emphasized the promotion of organic production of high value agricultural products. Government of Nepal (GoN) has also developed Agri-Business Promotion Policy (2007), with and objective of promotion and development of the high value crops developing commercial pocket areas based on the specialty and possibility of concerned areas.
The Interim Constitution of Nepal 2007 recognizes food sovereignty as the fundamental right of citizens. The importance of agricultural growth and food security has been underscored in a sequence of GON documents and plans (:10th plan, interim plan and current three year plan (2010-2012). The National Agriculture Sector Development Priority plan (NASDP 2011-2015), and the associated Country Investment Plan (CIP). A Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Plan of Action, led by the National Planning Commission, aims to integrate, inter alia, contributions from the agriculture sector (Ministry of Agriculture Development) to lay the foundation of a national "nutritional architecture". With the support of various development partners, a number of projects have also been undertaken to address many of the development challenges listed above - albeit at a limited scale typically - such as local seed production and storage, participatory action research for locally suited varieties, livestock productivity enhancement, crop diversification, off-farm livelihood development (including micro-enterprises), training and capacity building of farmer groups. |
