This issue covers the period of mid-November 2014 to mid-March 2015, the second trimester of Nepalese Fiscal Year 2071/72. This bulletin is based primarily on the outcomes of NeKSAP district food security network (DFSN) meetings held in 74 of 75 districts and the results of the NeKSAP household survey, a nationally representative sample survey, collected between February-March 2015. As such, this bulletin provides a comprehensive snapshot of the food security situation across Nepal before the earthquake in April. In this period:
Most parts of the country were classified as minimally food insecure (Phase I), a situation where most households can secure food and non-food needs without changing livelihood strategies.
DFSNs classified 8 Village Development Committees (VDCs) in 2 districts in the mid-western region as highly food insecure (Phase III): 6 VDCs in Surkhet, with an estimated 5,819 affected households (25,167 people), because of the continued impact of last year’s floods; and 2 VDCs in Mugu, with an estimated 1,028 affected households (5,983 people), because of the high loss of summer crops from hailstones.
DFSNs classified an additional 167 VDCs in 11 districts as moderately food insecure (Phase II).
Daily wages, sale of agricultural products (including livestock), and remittances were major income sources that contributed to improved household food security, with their share in household income at 28, 25 and 20 percent respectively.
Currently, average household cereal stock was 414 kg, which provides 5.2 months of staple food sufficiency for an average household. Harvesting of winter crops will start from March/April (Falgun) in most areas.
According to the NeKSAP household survey, 87 percent of households had adequate food consumption.
Since the last period, overall, household food consumption and dietary diversity have improved.According to Nepal Rastra Bank, the year-on-year Consumer Price Index (CPI) was 7.0 percent in March 2015 compared to 8.9 percent in the corresponding period last year. The cereal grain sub-group was 7.8 percent compared to 11.7 percent in the corresponding period last year.