“Ensuring Food
and Nutritional Security in Nepal: A Stocktaking Exercise”
Citation: Gulati, A., A. Ganesh-Kumar, G. Shreedhar, H. Pullabhotla, X.
Zhang. 2010. Ensuring Food and
Nutritional Security in Nepal: A Stocktaking Exercise. USAID, Kathmandu.
Abstract: Achieving food and nutritional
security is at the forefront of global developmental challenges facing the
world today. In order to meet the Millennium Development Goals of halving
global hunger by 2015 there is a pressing need for large scale investment
strategies to address the underlying causes. Nepal, despite a decade long
conflict, has made considerable progress in reducing poverty and food
insecurity since 1996. However, Nepal still faces significant food and
nutritional security challenges, compounded in recent years by the high food
prices, low economic growth, infrastructural constraints as well as natural
disasters. Long term policies which help address poverty and strategic
investments to enhance growth and raise incomes are required, especially in the
agriculture sector. Global development experience reveals that growth in
agriculture is at least two to three times more effective in reducing poverty
than same growth through the non-agriculture sector. In Nepal, with the
agriculture sector employing the majority of the workforce and contributing
nearly 34% to the country’s GDP, improving agriculture is of special importance
to help fight poverty and hunger. This stock taking report is a preliminary
step in this direction and attempts to provide a comprehensive overview of the
current food and nutritional security scenario in Nepal.