NHRN
kathmandu, July 24:  National Planning Commission (NPC) has predicted that the food deficit in the country will continue to pose a grave challenge to poverty reduction for next couple of years.,br> According to its recent publication 'Food Security Atlas of Nepal', the country will remain in food deficit in ‘normal harvest’ the next three to five years, if current production trend is not changed.
Agriculture production has fallen short of the demands of growing population over the past decade.
Lack of irrigation, soil erosion, limited mechanisation and poor usages of improved seeds, fertilizers and pesticides are major factors behind very low agriculture productivity.
Agriculture contributes to 35 percent of gross domestic production (GDP) and absorbs 76 percent of labour force.
In last decade, overall production increased by 15.9 percent while the consumption requirement saw a rise of 20.8 percent.
The report pointed out that Far and Mid-Western hills and mountain regions are reeling under acute food shortage followed by hills of Western and Central regions and rest of the country. Around 7.6 million Nepalis are believed to be affected by food shortage.
Regional imbalance has made it difficult to ensure food security to people.
The recent study carried out by the NPC is expected to help formulate need-based food strategy for coming years.
Nepal’s current food deficit situation is comparable to India, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Haiti, Bangladesh and Mali.
However the state of Mid-Mountain region and Far-Western region are compared to Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia respectively. Better positioned areas Central, Western hills and Eastern mountain are still below Myanmar, Cote d’Ivoire and Senegal.