Food Crisis in Karnali : A Historical and Politico-economic Perspective

Chautari Book Series 46

This book examines the food crisis and general underdevelopment in the Karnali region from a political economic perspective. It also examines governmental interventions in the form of food-aid and development initiatives and their impact on people’s general livelihoods.
    The study reveals that many of Karnali’s problems emanate from the exploitative relationship imposed by Kathmandu over Karnali (a peripheral region) during the course of several centuries. The feeling among Karnali residents that rice is better than their local foods and that they need to depend on the bureaucracy for development originates from this relationship. Accordingly, this study stresses that class relations are important to understand the underdevelopment of some regions within Nepal.
    This second edition comes with a new epilogue where the author discusses changes that have taken place in the Karnali region since he did his original research for this book in the 1990s. This includes the making of the Karnali Province in 2015 as part of the new federal set-up. The book will be useful for researchers, students, politicians, and development practitioners who are interested in Karnali.

Jagannath Adhikari is a human geographer who grew up in Pokhara, Nepal. He has written extensively on agrarian change, food security, labor migration, remittance economy, and environmental justice. He has authored, edited and co-edited many books on these subjects including Changing Livelihoods: Essays on Nepal’s Development since 1990 (2008). He has also published a travelogue, Under the Shadow of the Red Flag: Travels during Nepal’s Armed Conflict (2014).

Table of contents

Acknowledgements
Preface
Preface to the Second Edition

Chapter One: Development in Karnali and the Food Crisis

• 1.1. Introduction
• 1.2. Karnali’s failed development: social and political-economic perspectives
• 1.3. Research objectives
• 1.4. Methodology
• 1.5. Organization of the book
• 1.6. Karnali region and zone
• 1.7. Karnali weather: high variability

Chapter Two: Approaches to the Study of Food Crisis

• 2.1. Understanding food systems and food security
• 2.2. Vulnerability, access to resources and livelihood security: importance of political economy
• 2.3. Livelihood approach to food security analysis and its relevance to food-aid
• 2.4. Violence, conflict, livelihood and food security

Chapter Three: Political Development and Livelihood Crisis: A Historical Review

• 3.1. Before unification of Karnali to the formation of Nepali State (5th century–1769)
• 3.2. Unification to the downfall of the Ranas (1769–1950)
• 3.3. After the downfall of the Ranas to the dawn of democracy (1950–1990)
• 3.4. From the establishment of a democratic political system to the present (1990–2008)

Chapter Four: Livelihood Practices and Vulnerabilities: Changing Dynamics

• 4.1. Agriculture and food self-sufficiency
  • 4.1.1. Increase in the area under cultivation
  • 4.1.2. Production and productivity of various crops
  • 4.1.3. Food self-sufficiency
  • 4.1.4. Traditional farming system: diversity and importance of minor crops
  • 4.1.5. Decline in productivity and low production
• 4.2. Animal husbandry
• 4.3. Home industry
• 4.4. Seasonal migration
• 4.5. Trade, marketing and mobility
• 4.6. Forest products (herbs, timber and wild life)
• 4.7. Honey and apples
• 4.8. Vulnerabilities and social problems

Chapter Five: Extent of Food Insecurity and Explanations

• 5.1. From food surplus to food deficit, and food deficit to food crisis
• 5.2. Searching for an explanation for the lack of food security
  • 5.2.1. Physical exclusion and difficult terrain
  • 5.2.2. Population pressure
  • 5.2.3. Social inequality
  • 5.2.4. Conflict and out-migration
  • 5.2.5. Decline in internal exchange and new food customs
  • 5.2.6. Decline in village cooperation
  • 5.2.7. Roadlessness
  • 5.2.8. Government neglect and discrimination
  • 5.2.9. External intervention

Chapter Six: Government Response: Politics of Food-Aid and Food Crisis

• 6.1. Food deficit and food-aid
• 6.2. Food production deficit and government support
• 6.3. Government food-aid
• 6.5. Other support
• 6.6. Other sources of food
• 6.7. Inaccessibility and politics of transportation of foodgrains
• 6.8. Liberalization policy and reduction in subsidies

Chapter Seven: The Contemporary Situation of 2006: Field Study

• 7.1. The general situation in some districts
  • 7.1.1. Mugu
  • 7.1.2. Jumla
  • 7.1.3. Kalikot
• 7.2. Socio-economic features of these districts based on village study
• 7.3. Demographic features
• 7.4. Access to land
• 7.5. Food production and its sufficiency at the household level
• 7.6. Ways to make up the food deficit
  • 7.6.1. Access to uncultivated food
  • 7.6.2. Access to government food
  • 7.6.3. Access to employment opportunities
  • 7.6.4. Cash income from local sources
• 7.7. Impact of conflict

Chapter Eight: Conclusions and Recommendations

• 8.1. Conclusions
  • 8.1.1. A region of high vulnerability
  • 8.1.2. Political-economic condition and food insecurity
  • 8.1.3. Production failure
  • 8.1.4. Change in food habits: influence of the dominant culture
  • 8.1.5. Dependency on government food
  • 8.1.6. Roadlessness: physical exclusion and unavailability of food
  • 8.1.7. Emphasis on food-aid, but not on food security
  • 8.1.8. Conflict and food security
  • 8.1.9. Social and gender inequality within the community and the household
• 8.2. The way forward
  • 8.2.1. Short term strategies
  • 8.2.2. Long-term solutions

Epilogue: Karnali’s Transformation
References
Index
Glossar