Identifying Pathways for Improving Household Food Self-Sufficiency Outcomes in the Hills of Nepal

Abstract

Maintaining and improving household food self-sufficiency (FSS) in mountain regions is an ongoing challenge. There are many facets to the issue, including comparatively high levels of land fragmentation, challenging terrain and transportation bottlenecks, declining labor availability due to out-migration, and low technical knowledge, among others. Using a nonparametric multivariate approach, we quantified primary associations underlying current levels of FSS in the mid-hills of Nepal. A needs assessment survey was administered to 77 households in Lungaun (Baglung District), Pang (Parbat District), and Pathlekhet (Myagdi District), with a total of 80 variables covering five performance areas; resulting data were analyzed using Classification and Regression Trees. The most parsimonious statistical model for household FSS highlighted associations with agronomic management, including yields of maize and fingermillet within a relay cropping system and adoption of improved crop cultivars. Secondary analyses of the variables retained in the first model again focused primarily on crop and livestock management. It thus appears that continued emphasis on technical agricultural improvements is warranted, independent of factors such as land holding size that, in any case, are very difficult to change through development interventions. Initiatives to increase household FSS in the mid-hills of Nepal will benefit from placing a primary focus on methods of agricultural intensification to improve crop yields and effective technology transfer to increase adoption of these methods.

Climate smart agriculture, farm household typologies and food security

“…Ashokvardhan, 2009 ). Similar patterns of out-migration and increased cash flows to rural households in the form of both domestic and international remittances have been observed in rural Pakistan ( Kousar et al, 2016 ), Bangladesh ( Zhang et al, 2014 ), and Nepal ( Karki et al, 2015 ), indicative of the regional scale of this phenomenon.…”

Exploring farmer perceptions of agricultural innovations for maize-legume intensification in the mid-hills region of Nepal

“…The hybrids used during the first year of participatory trials took 15 days longer to mature than the local variety. This is a reason of farmers' concern since the delay in maize maturity and harvest could cause planting delays of the subsequent winter crop (Karki et al, 2015). In addition, in general farmers preferred white varieties (local) in participatory varietal selection Tiwari, Virk, and Sinclair (2009), because these are considered to be compatible with their farming systems.…”

“…Participatory approaches also have been reported to contribute to positive changes in farmer perceptions and willingness to adopt innovations (Kraaijvanger, Veldkamp, & Almekinders, 2016;Misiko, 2009). Even though the positive impact of these approaches on rural development has been demonstrated in numerous studies, participatory technology evaluations have only been applied in some cases in South-Asia (Karki, Sah, Thapa, McDonald, & Davis, 2015). Actively involving farmers in the selection and exploration of new technologies and system improvements, might also lead to a better understanding of the reasons of farmers for adoption or rejection.…”

“…The reasons include, among others, lack of information of technology and motivation of farmers (Ransom, Paudyal, & Adhikari, 2003;Tiwari et al, 2004), and increased costs and risks for the farmers. Furthermore, there are still gaps between the results obtained in experimental research stations and farmers' fields (Ghimire & Huang, 2015;Karki et al, 2015;Paudel & Matsuoka, 2008) that could be bridged by improving the communication between farmers and extension systems (including the non-governmental community) (Karki et al, 2015;Ransom et al, 2003), and possibly a stronger role of the private sector.…”

Household food insecurity in Panamanian subsistence farming communities is associated with indicators of household wealth and constraints on food production

“…Second, access to land, seeds and the tools needed to prepare, plant and harvest crops can be a limitation. Interventions that provide improved seeds and agricultural tools and that train farmers in water and soil conservation and pest reduction can improve agricultural production (8) , but few studies have considered whether such interventions reduce the experience of food insecurity (9) . Additionally, it is unclear whether the choice to grow specific crops or a greater diversity of crops or livestock improves food security in subsistence farming households.…”