Food Security Situation and its Effect in Social Life in Far-Western Hills (A Case Study of Kuwakot VDC of Baitadi District)

Abstract

This study on Food Security Situation and its Effect in Social Life in Far Western Hills: A Case Study of Kuwakot VDC of Baitadi District has been carried out in Kuwakot VDC of Baitadi district. The study has been, primarily focused on to identify the food security situation of the study area and its effect in people’s life. Food insecurity has been perceived as lack of access by members of household to enough, safe and nutritious food throughout the year to live healthy. This is a situation caused either by inadequate food availability, access and entitlements or by poverty or all of these. For the purpose of food security analysis, food availability means a situation in which the food required to maintain a safe and healthy life is available for all people in the country. Access to food implies that the people in a given location have both physical and economic access to obtain food. Physical access implies a food supply system which insures easy availability of required foods, and is determined by local production augmented by imports and by the food distribution system. Food utilization relates in part to the capacity to translate efficiently into energy. However, the globally accepted definition of food security is one adopted by the WFS held in Rome in November 1996, i.e. ‘Food security exists when all people at all time, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preference for an active and healthy life’. The specific objectives of the study are; to explore food security situation, to identify prime factors behind food insecurity, to assess the effect of food insecurity and to identify the alternative coping mechanisms at times of food insecurity. Theoretical framework of the study is dependency theory. To conduct the study in a systematic way the researcher has used the blend of descriptive and explorative research design. Various data collection techniques have been opted. Household survey questionnaire method has been applied to obtain the primary information from the sampled households which revealed the household economic, social and educational status including food security situation. Similarly the researcher has used FGD, key informant interview and observation tools in order to collect the primary data. Necessary secondary data have been obtained from government policy documents, research reports, data sheets and other relevant literatures available in national and international academic sphere. The major findings of the study are; the social and economic relation between the district headquarter and the study area has been found far beyond the imagination. People often go district headquarter for governmental official work, agricultural concern and such other works. This shows the dependency of periphery (Kuwakot) to core (DHQ). The relationship between village elites and the poor was found, simply, a dominant and dependant. The poor often go with the village elite to take debt at times of food shortage and other crisis. The average land holding of the households has been found 0.6 hectare whereas the national average is 0.8 hectare. The average food self sufficiency of the household is only 4 to 6 months. Lack of irrigation, low productive land, natural disaster, crop disease and traditional farming system were the prime factors behind the existing food insecurity. Migration to India for labor work, low educational attainment, and land selling were seen as the effect of food insecurity which denotes the emerging crisis in the near future concerned with food security. The remittances that were received from migrants also used to maintain household food management, celebration of festivals, buying clothes, invest in child education and other necessities. None of the household was found to be able to save money in banks for further use. Governmental role toward the food security seemed not sufficient, it is better to say passive. The recommendations of the study are only for the academic purpose. It is advised to carry out further research in the field of intra household food security through gender perspective to find out the position of women and their control over household food distribution and utilization. It also has been felt most necessary to be carried out a research on the association between food security, education enrollment and out-migration. This will further help to find out the relationship between food security and education. Whether or not, education has helped to reduce food insecurity and migration