Food grain production drops

Food grain production drops
The Himalayan, 12-May-10

Due to drop in food grain production, over a million Nepalis are under the shadow of famine this year. Nepal is experiencing food shortage of 3,16,465 metric tonnes (MT) affecting over 1.6 million people this year, Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative (MoAC) said today. Food deficit was around 1, 32,914 MT last year.

According to MoAC, food grains — rice, wheat, maize, millet and barley — production has decreased by 4.3 per cent to 7.76 million MT this year. Total food grains production was 8.11 million MT last year. Area of cultivation is also contracted by one per cent this year. Irregular monsoon and insufficient irrigation are blamed for the low production.

Production of rice — major crop in Nepal — has decreased by 11 per cent to 4.02 million MT this year, MoAC said. Nepali farmers had produced around 4.52 million MT of rice last year. Second major crop — maize — production has also declined by four per cent contracting the total production from last year’s 1.93 million MT to 1.85 million MT this year.

However, production of three crops — wheat, millet and barley — cultivated in summer has gone up. Barley production has jumped by 19 per cent followed by wheat (up by 16 per cent) and millet (up by two per cent). The ministry has assumed around 1.55 million MT wheat, 3,00,000 MT millet and 27,500 MT barley production this year. Last year, the quantity was 1.34 million MT, 2,93,000 MT and 23,000 MT respectively. MoAC has also identified six factors — irregular monsoon, poor irrigation facility, unavailability of fertiliser in cultivation season, shortage of hybrid seeds, settlement in cultivation areas and low investment in research and development — for low food production.

The ministry has expressed grave concern in irrespective growth of population to food production. “Gap between food production and population growth is widening and has created an alarming situation for food security,” it said.


NFC to buy 25,000 MT rice

Ministry of Commerce and Supply (MoCS) has directed Nepal Food Corporation (NFC) to buy 25,000 metric tonnes of rice from India to mitigate the impact of food shortage. The ministry has on Tuesday asked NFC to present purchase plan as soon as possible. “We are working on action plan,” said Hari Narayan Shah, general manager of NFC. “Details of the plan will be ready by next week. Prime Minister Madhav Kumar Nepal had asked Indian government to provide 2,00,000 MT of food grains to Nepal from Indian state entities during his New Delhi visit. Following the request, Indian government had approved supply of 50,000 MT of wheat and 25,000 MT of rice in the market price for Nepal for 2010.