Impact of conflict on food security

Fears are growing that food insecurity is set to worsen in Karnali, which lies 400 km northwest of the capital Kathmandu and is Nepal’s least developed zone. The isolated area has seen food deficits since the 1970s, but the situation has been made worse by the Maoist conflict - the civil war against the state that has claimed the lives of more than 10,000 Nepalis over the last nine years. Kalikot, Humla, Mugu, Dolpa, and Jumla are some of the country’s most neglected districts within Karnali province. Here, malnutrition is the major cause of death and villagers have a long history of chronic food shortages and periodic famines. With only a small proportion of cultivable land, the people have to depend on external food, which has to be airdropped to avoid the risk of looting if carried over the rough terrain. But with the escalation of the Maoist offensive in the past 12 months, the amount of food reaching the region has been reduced. “The food crisis has already begun in the five districts. I fear that starvation will occur if food is not supplied soon,” a local community leader told IRIN, requesting not to be named. The Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) in the western border city of Nepalgunj is responsible for distributing food in the region and depends on helicopters to airdrop the supplies. Karnali Air, the only company allowed to transport food utilising its helicopters, was asked by the security force not to airdrop, fearing that supplies would fall into the hands of the rebels. “If the supplies are not made, the situation will be dangerous. If there is no airdrop of the supplies, we must find an alternative, otherwise people will starve,” an NFC officer explained. In Jumla, villagers are so desperate that they are now trading valuable and expensive medicinal plants in exchange for rice. They are travelling through the area’s difficult terrain to reach the southern belt of the district to sell their plants at very low prices to buy food and take it back to their villages. The plants are worth more than US $5,000 per kilo in China and India but now they are forced to exchange the precious plants for basic foods. “The non-existence of roads and low availability of other infrastructure such as health, education and the like are the evidence of the neglect of the government,” reads the report Conflict and Food Security in Nepal by David Seddon and Jagannath Adhikari. The report, published by the European Union (EU) shows how the Maoist conflict has had an adverse affect on the food supply system in Nepal, especially in isolated villages where the food security situation is marginal at best. “Even now Karnali receives woefully inadequate funds given its size and needs. In recent times, the government allocation from central funds has been mainly utilised in transporting food grains and in paying the salaries of government staff,” the report said. In addition to government neglect, even the small amount of support to the people of Karnali province is in jeopardy due to the conflict. During the last few years, the NFC has relocated many food depots from the villages to the district headquarters meaning villagers have to travel for days on foot to reach them. But for the people, the distance is less of a problem than the Maoist restrictions, which forbid them from visiting district headquarters. The UN’s World Food Programme (WFP) said it needed more and better information on the food situation in the villages “We haven’t found that recent political developments have increased food deficit to a noticeable extent,” Morten Olesen, from WFP in Kathmandu told IRIN. “But that is just based on a few surveillances which in some cases are outdated.” NGO staff are also having difficulty visiting remote areas to get an accurate picture of what is happening in the villages. Many rely on the heavily censored media. “The main problem is that research is lacking nowadays and we can only get an idea through what is reported in the newspapers,” admits a local Nepali expert on food security who works with an aid agency. But there are still some important food security initiatives in remote places like Karnali. One of them is the Rural Community Infrastructure Works Programme (RCIW) that is jointly run by GTZ and KFW of Germany, the UK’s Department for International Development (DfID) and WFP. They work closely with the government to implement a programme aimed at improving food security of the poorest households in food deficit districts. In a country of 25 million, nearly 10 million have to cope with food shortages. With a little support from RCIW, it has helped to give food aid through its food-for-work programme. Operational in 25 food deficit districts, the scheme has involved more than 75,000 villagers in road construction work in return for food. Each worker receives about 4 kg of coarse rice every day. Nearly 50 percent of the workers are women. The road work runs from December to June - known as the ‘hungry season’ when rain for agriculture is in short supply. “Most of the poor villagers will not be forced to migrate to India if they get involved in the work,” explained Buddhi Kunwar from GTZ. To date there have been no major incidents where rebels have caused disruption to the RCIW programme. “This programme is aimed at the poorest of the poor. Even if the rebels try to obstruct the work, the community will do everything to ensure that the programme continues,” said a RCIW worker in Nepalgunj. But the rebellion is having some impact on such schemes. Early in 2005, RCIW was compelled to suspend a road project in Gorkha district, 150 km west of Kathmandu, after local villagers complained that the rebels were threatening construction workers. In early March, security forces halted a RCIW project in Dailekh, 450 km west of Kathmandu, suspecting that the programme was helping to feed local rebel armies. One of the NGO workers was arrested but he was released and has asked the local government body, the District Development Committee, to allow the work to resume. More than 6,000 villagers rely on the RCIW programme in Dailekh, for them it is the difference between feeding their families and starvation.