Food scarcity looms large on Nepal: Experts

While earthquake-hit Nepal is slowly coming to terms with the death and destruction caused, insufficient foodstocks in the country and inadequate stocks even in the SAARC Food Bank may lead to food insecurity as an aftermath of last week's temblor, experts here have warned.

"We need food not tarpaulin and tents," said Nepalese Finance Minister Ram Sharan Mahat, who is also an economist.

The 7.9 magnitude quake that jolted the Himalayan nation on April 25 struck at a time when farmers were preparing to plant paddy and others crops.

The SAARC Food Bank, established to provide food in emergency situations, does not have that much of stocks.

During the 17th SAARC Summit, the member states had declared that SAARC Food Bank will hold 48,6000 tonnes of rice with contributions from all members states.

"India has the largest share of 30,6400 tonnes. But we have not stocked that much at the SAARC Food Bank," a diplomat told IANS, adding that it is really a serious problem.

The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the UN reckons that the April 25 quake - the country's biggest in 80 years - has left some 3.5 million people in need of food assistance.

It said some $8 million are urgently needed to help disaster-struck farmers to rapidly recover lost agricultural inputs and resume preparations for the imminent paddy sowing season.

The UN food agency said that although damage to the agriculture sector in Nepal has not yet been assessed, affected families have likely lost livestock, crops, food stocks and valuable agricultural inputs.

"As the earthquake has hit the country before the start of the main paddy growing season, prompt and effective rehabilitation of affected farmers would be a determining factor on food production," economist Madan Dahal told The Kathmandu Post daily.

"Farmers will be ready to go to the field only if they are effectively rehabilitated," he said.

As the monsoon is the key for the rain-fed economy like ours," Dahal said, "a slight variation in the amount and the timing of the monsoon would have serious impact on the overall food production.

A late monsoon along with untimely rain is set to hit the paddy yield this fiscal, with the agriculture ministry estimating paddy output to drop 5.1 percent to 4.78 million tonnes.

Nepal produced 258,435 tonnes less paddy compared to last year largely due to a late monsoon and untimely rainfall.

The country has already imported food grains worth Rs. 22.48 billion, up 33 percent, in the first eight months of the current fiscal year.

Before the quake hit, the FAO estimated Nepal's wheat production in 2015 at 1.8 million tones -- some 5 percent below last year's record harvest.

But crop damage and farmers' inability to harvest in quake affected areas are likely to get adversely hit as per this forecast.

In addition, disruption of planting operations for paddy and maize may severely reduce the planted area for these crops in the most affected districts.

"There is a critical window of opportunity to help crop producers plant in time in order to have paddy harvest this year and regain their self-sufficiency," said Somsak Pipoppinyo, FAO representative in Nepal.

The Asian Development Bank's (ADB) initial assessment of the economic impact of the quake too stated that Nepal's service sector would be hit.

The production activities, especially in the service sector, have been severely disrupted, mainly due to damage to physical infrastructure and distribution networks.

According to the ADB, travel and tourism is likely to be badly hit with most of the key hotels shutting down for next few weeks to examine the structural integrity of their buildings.

"The impact of the likely drop in tourism will be significant," ADB said.

"Then the growth forecast may be further downgraded to somewhere between 3 to 3.5 percent," the ADB said in its assessment.