UPPER DOLPA, NEPAL — For three years now, the Nepalese government has not delivered rice to parts of Upper Dolpa, a district bordering China. As a result, people walk four to nine days to buy rice at the market, at prices that most people cannot afford.
Rice in the market costs 150 Nepalese rupees per kilogram (US$0.50 per pound), up to 2.5 times what it cost when the rice was delivered to their area between 58 and 87 rupees per kilogram (20 to 29 cents per pound). .
But getting the rice to Upper Dolpa is incredibly difficult.
“For us or a contractor to transport rice, we have to use hinnies or yaks. Or we have to use helicopters,” which only arrive every few years, says local resident Dorje Gurung. “We have lost all hope that the government will be able to transport the food products. »
The government signs a contract with a company every year to transport food to Upper Dolpa. Ideally, rice should be distributed across the area. But for several reasons, including the lack of means of transport in Haut Dolpa, the contractor, although he has a contract in place, refuses to make the delivery. However, this time, the “residents of Upper Dolpa will receive food. The food will arrive in Dolpa before the start of the snow season (December-January),” says Bishnu Ghimire, head of the Dolpa office of Food Management and Trading Co., a state-owned company that manages contracts as part of its job. purchase. food and deliver it to remote districts of the country.
But Gurung is skeptical.
“Even if it arrives, it won’t be enough for a month,” he said.
This is a widespread problem across Karnali province, in the remote and mountainous Himalayan district. So many people left this region for cities and jobs overseas that the farms that could otherwise feed them remained fallow.
Karnali is the largest of Nepal’s provinces, with an area of approximately 30,000 square kilometers (11,583 square miles), or approximately 21% of the country’s total area. But it has the smallest population, with 1.6 million people. The Haut Dolpa region is home to around 42,700 inhabitants, according to 2021 census figures.
It is a rugged region with roads often impassable due to landslides and general poor conditions. The 232-kilometer (144-mile) Karnali Highway is often in such poor condition that it is nicknamed the “highway of death.” On average, 100 people die on the road each year, according to official statistics.
Despite the difficulties of traveling to and from the Upper Dolpa region – and despite the region’s agricultural potential – more than a quarter of its arable land was barren in 2020. In response, the government launched a program promising funds , seeds and other support to increase agriculture. productivity. They aimed to create thousands of new jobs, in the hope of attracting people who had moved to the cities to the region. But today, an even larger share of arable land – 30% – is unused, according to a report from the provincial Ministry of Land Planning, Agriculture and Cooperatives.
A big part of the problem is that there still aren’t enough people left in the region for the program to succeed, as many agricultural workers have migrated to urban centers, says Ramesh Khadka, information officer at ministry.
Farming in the alpine conditions that characterize this region takes more time and costs more than in other regions. “They earn their living by other means,” explains Dhan Bahadur Kathayat, spokesperson and head of agricultural expansion at the ministry.
Karnali province has agricultural potential. Nine different varieties of grains and rice are grown here, including millet, barley and Jumli Marshi rice. Yet six out of ten districts rely on imported food, says Kathayat.
Data shows that the citizens of Karnali need 344,324 tonnes (379,552 US tonnes) of food. The province falls short of this figure by 23,434 tonnes (25,831 US tonnes).
And people are hungry. More than a third are affected by dwarfism, which can be caused by malnutrition during gestation or during childhood. Forty percent of children suffer from anemia. A 2019 study by the World Food Program and the Nepal government found that around a quarter of households do not have enough food – and only 8% of households consume what they need. Starvation is an acute danger.
Navaraj KC, a local pediatrician, says malnutrition rates would decrease if the Karnali region produced the food it is capable of producing.
“The nutritional content of food produced in Karnali cannot be produced elsewhere in Nepal,” he says. “If we can conserve these grains and increase production, then we can be self-sustaining and produce a healthy workforce for the future. »
Nepal became a democratic federal republic in 2015, divided into seven provinces. Since then, several governments have presented many ambitious plans to improve agricultural production in Karnali province. Efforts have been made towards organic farming, youth farming schemes, subsidies, plot unification schemes, loan schemes and much more, says Binod Kumar Shah, Minister for Land Management. Land, Agriculture and Cooperatives.
The government is now moving towards sanctions: people who keep their land barren will be subject to a higher tax. Cultivable land becomes forest again, explains agricultural expert Lilaram Paudel, who has experience in Karnali.
“We need to think about how we can generate income from these forests. For example, by making money from herbs,” he says.
Meanwhile, rice deliveries from other regions remain slow. Madhav Mishra, head of the Food Management and Trading Co.’s Birendranagar office, says more than 105,000 quintals (11,574 US tonnes) of food have been distributed across the province and there will be no shortage This year.
But locals like Dil Kumari Dhimal don’t think it’s true. The worst shortages occur during the festival season, when demand for rice is high. Two major festivals, Dashain and Tihar, take place in October and November.
In recent years, she says, she left the food depot empty-handed and was forced to buy rice from the local market at unaffordable prices. The situation has been the same since the beginning of this year.