Palpa District, Nepal – in the calm of the morning, Kanta Rajali carefully places two bowls of rice on the stove. She knows that they will not be enough to satisfy her family of four people. But she must save two other bowls of rice for dinner, while she will take up the challenge of feeding her sick husband, her eldest disabled son and her sick younger son.
“I learned to live with a full half-estomac so that my husband and my children can feel full,” explains Rajali, 50.
Tomorrow, the same struggle will be repeated. Since his marriage at the age of 15, Rajali has cultivated crops, including corn, mustard, barley and potatoes to help his family survive. However, due to changes in seasonal models, yields have decreased and harvest lasts only four months. The supply of barley was used to make flour for a year. Now it is limited to two handles.
The fight against farmers like Rajali to produce enough food in a country facing poverty, malnutrition and what research shows the obstacles related to climate change has become more intense with the loss of funding through the American agency for international development. In response to a public request from the World Press Review, the Ministry of Nepal Agriculture and Development said that six USAID programs are expected to provide a total of US $ 104 million and $ 114 million. Most of the programs started in 2023 and most of the funding was to continue until 2028 or 2029.
Ministry officials said the Government of Nepal was involved in the administration of a program worth $ 21 million US dollars – with non -governmental organizations implementing others – and could not say how much money was disbursed before the aid stops. The officials added that the Government of Nepal had not been reimbursed 11.2 million Nepalese rupees (around US $ 81,150) that it has already spent on this particular program while expecting a reimbursement of the USAID. The US State Department has not provided details when the Global Press Journal requested details on financing discounts.
Earlier this year, the administration of US President Donald Trump suddenly placed around 90% of USAID staff on administrative leave, according to the judicial archives showing that 86% of its programs have been terminated. The administration has closed the agency’s headquarters created in 1961 as a humanitarian branch and international development of the American government. On May 29, the US State Department informed the Congress of its plans to reduce the USAID objective and absorb some of its functions. The legality of the Trump administration’s actions to dismantle the agency exercised by the congress is challenged in an American courtyard. Meanwhile, the impacts are felt worldwide.
Key programs are interrupted
In Nepal, the cuts have interrupted key support programs such as initiatives aimed at improving access to seeds, fertilizers, agricultural tools and sustainable agricultural resources. Programs were focused on increasing agricultural productivity, strengthening market systems and nutrition stimulation, especially for small farmers faced with climatic and economic challenges. A key objective had been to transfer producers of subsistence agriculture to commercial agriculture. With the disappearance of programs, farmers fear that they will be pushed deeper into poverty.
In Rajali’s house, she is the only family support. Her husband, 60, is sick of a relapse of tuberculosis. Their eldest son, 27, is unable to speak because of mental health challenges. Their younger son, 23, experiences fainting. To support his family, Rajali also works in the village as a worker, struggling to provide the most basic nutrition to his relatives while surviving on 500 rupees (around US $ 3.64) per day. But she says that the work of workers is not always available.
Agriculture represents nearly a quarter of the economy of Nepal and employs 66% of all workers – most of them, according to the World Food Program of the United Nations. While small farmers like Rajali increase up to 80% of the country’s food, low yields have resulted in a 65% increase in food imports since 2015 and many rural families cannot eat all year round. However, the government only allocates 3% of its budget to the agriculture sector, the conclusions of the Democracy Resource Center are not indicated. The survey on the standard of living of Nepal from 2022 to 2023 then shows that there has been a significant reduction in poverty over 12 years, 20.3% of the population lives below a new poverty line established with a higher standard.
Meeting the Poverty Reduction Objectives of Nepal in the coming years will be difficult due to the loss of funding from the USAID, explains Ram Krishna Shrestha, a joint secretary in the Ministry of Nepal Agriculture and Development of cattle.
“These programs have strengthened the capacity of farmers. They were able to earn a living, to produce independently and to manage the markets, “he said, describing how some farmers have not only fed their families, but have improved their livelihoods.
Malnutrition will increase and farmers will become poorer due to the loss of funding, says Shrestha.
Keshav Devkota, head of the Center for the Development of Cultures and Conservation of Agricultural Biodiversity, which is part of the Ministry of Agriculture of Nepal, says that the center will no longer be able to promote varieties of indigenous seeds that have been developed to be climate -resistant and aimed at reducing malnutrition.
Rukmangat Bhattarai, president of Rainadevi Chhahara, the rural municipality in which the Rajali family lives, says that the fact that the financing of the USAID will no longer be available to civil servants concerned and consider the steps to be taken next. Partly, the aid had helped farmers cultivate oranges, in particular with support for the marketing of products.
“When farmers started to fight to adapt to the evolution of seasonal models, we started this program to transform agriculture into commercial practice. But now many farmers are frustrated, ”he says.
The weight of culture problems
In 2018, Rajali replaced his main harvest with oranges because she could not support her family by cultivating more traditional food in the region. She hoped that the oranges would offer a stable life and planted more trees when her first harvest generated an income of 20,000 rupees (approximately $ 145.50).
But as the drought conditions have worsened, orange flowers have fallen prematurely, the trees fade, mold and hail and insects have damaged the fruit more. Now, Rajali’s orange production is no longer a reliable source of income.
In addition to that, only the scattered germs emerged after having planted corn between oranges. The watering of this sparse harvesting is also a challenge because tap water in his family’s house only lights up for half an hour a day. When there is not enough water, it goes in an hour from there to get more.
Like many farmers in Nepal, Rajali is mainly based on rain for irrigation. But the precipitation has been insufficient in the last 11 winters. Because her agriculture has not produced enough to support her family, she feels that her fate is cursed and there is no exhaust of a life of misery.
“It’s like an endless cycle,” says Rajali.
She adds that the loss of the financing of the USAID means that it will no longer receive subsidies from the rural municipality which provided it with orange plants, fertilizers and agricultural tools, as well as assistance in the organization of access to the local market to sell its oranges. As the woman and the mother age, she says she feels the weight of time by pressing her while she works to feed her family. But the need to provide for their needs makes it move forward.
“I will not rest as long as I can feed my family,” says Rajali, “even if it means taking my last breath.”