The IMF in a recent piece on why sustainable food systems are needed in a post-COVID world (Nicoletta Batini (IMF), James Lomax (UNEP), and Divya Mehra (WFP); July, 2020), report that a “ “hunger pandemic” and a doubling of people starving may soon eclipse the coronavirus, unless action is taken”. This is already happening in Nepal, with more than 100,000 migrant labourers returning from overseas, thousands of jobs lost and public debt soaring. Nepal has to start rebuilding its economy even before the COVID-19 health crisis ends.
The COVID-19 crisis and ongoing federalization-related challenges offer an opportunity for Nepal to rebuild its stagnant and fragmented agriculture and food systems and make it resilient to future shocks and disturbances, ensuring environmental sustainability and nutritious diets. There are four areas where suitable interventions can be made to achieve this goal:
1. Develop resilient local food supply chains: Given common transportation bottlenecks in Nepal, food produced locally can be distributed more efficiently, lowering risks of food insecurity, malnutrition, and hikes in food prices, while creating local jobs. For this, we need to train and build the capacity of local institutions such as local government Agriculture Service Centres and Krishi Gyan Kendras to capacitate and empower small producers and retailers and mainstream them in the food systems value chain.
2. Raise awareness on eating healthy diets: Informal education by local governments can curb the consumption of packed food such as noodles and chips by heavily taxing unhealthy foods, and enhancing nutrition education programs and healthcare systems toward better diets.
3. Conservation and socio-ecological based farming systems: CASI technology supported by CGIAR/ACIAR/DFAT can be expanded to promote sustainable and regenerative farming and cropping systems, giving emphasis to self-reliant local and regional food systems that can improve soil health, and better manage water to deal with climate change induced drought and flood situation in Nepal’s Tarai region. For this the local governments need to be helped in creating enabling environments to promote sustainable farming, facilitate market access and improve the financial and regulatory incentives for small farmers.
4. Strengthening optimal animal and plant based food systems: In Nepal fortunately, unlike in developed countries, the diet is already more plant based; but there is a need to have balanced animal/plant-based diets to protect the environment. In the EGP regions, use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides are on the rise; there is a need to keep a sound balance to maintain both healthy food system and a healthy environment.
For more information, please contact Dr Madhav Karki ([email protected]).