Food Insecurity and Natural Disaster Series: Lessons Learned from the 2015 Nepal Earthquake

Photo Credit © John T. on Unsplash.

Unfortunately, large-scale natural disasters can disrupt food-secure systems and transform them overnight into areas with hunger and livelihood issues, especially when there is no action plan in place.

 In April of 2015, Nepal experienced an 8.1 magnitude earthquake known as the Gorkha Earthquake.  Its epicenter was only 48 miles northwest of Kathmandu, the area where the  Indo-Gangetic Plain meets the Himalyas. This impact killed 8,964 people and injured 21,952 more during multiple aftershocks as well as a huge avalanche  from Sagarmāthā (the Nepali name for Mount Everest). Entire villages were flattened and 750,000 buildings destroyed.

 A major issue in supplying food relief to these areas was the topography: Nepal is a landlocked, mountainous country where significant numbers of people live in inaccessible areas. Roads and trails connecting rural communities had been destroyed, so many localities were only accessible to courageous trekkers, sherpas or helicopters. Regions further north and close to the Tibet Autonomous Region of China already had severe food supply-chain issues that were multiplied by the earthquake.

 The United Nations World Food Program (WFP) reported that 70% of households in the affected areas lost some or all their food reserves. 35% of residents came to rely on food assistance in areas that had almost never needed it;  1.4 million people were in critical need of food assistance because they had no access to food or food markets. [FN1]

 After the earthquake, only 70% of food distribution points were operational. Many farmers and consumers had to rely on credit to purchase any food that was available; this reinforced economic issues and slowed recovery as a result of reduced liquidity. Initially, staple food prices stayed steady, thanks to the abundant harvest of the year before -- but beginning in the fall, prices began to skyrocket and have remained high ever since. 

 The total value of damage and loss to the agriculture sector of Nepal was estimated at USD $284 million. [FN2] The economic fallout from the earthquake was immediate and devastating. Livelihoods of smallholding farmers and non-agricultural day laborers were severely affected, with income losses of over 75% reported in several areas. This in turn led to decreased overall spending on food (indicative of food insecurity) showing a 17% decrease in overall food spending. These losses coincided with the cut-off of important revenue for this tourism-reliant country. [FN3]  

 The majority of farmers at higher altitudes could rely only on the barley, potatoes and livestock farming traditionally traded with lowland farmers in exchange for rice, pulses and other staple crops. Two thirds of the people in affected areas participated in some form of subsistence agriculture. After the earthquake, there were significant standing-crop losses from landslides, over-maturation of grain and livestock escapes. 40% of farmers lost half or more of their grain reserves, as well as seed stocks needed to replant grain for the summer. Grain storage suffered damage, so many farmers no longer had grain reserves.

 Many potential crops were lost because of the disruption to the planting timetable: Nepali farmers plant seeds in conjunction with the monsoon (rainy) season and they could not plant just before the heavy rain as the seeds would wash away. The March plantings were damaged by the earthquake and thus needed to be replanted. Only poor quality seed salvaged from destroyed granaries was available.  This late seeding also led to issues with the fall crop.

 International aid organizations USAID, UNICEF, and the WFP led recovery efforts at the beginning.  Some of these organizations bought seeds from India and started programs to enhance crop and livestock production with machinery, tools & other agricultural infrastructure to aid in rebuilding. Programs were implemented for long-term development to provide drip irrigation systems and greenhouses to expand food production capacity. These programs were criticized for concentrating on urban areas, only benefiting a few thousand farmers.

 Initially remittances from overseas family members came in to subsidize losses, but those soon declined. However, incoming remittances were resurging by 2017, when remittances stood at NPR 699 billion (or USD 6.56 billion), the equivalent of 25% of Nepal’s GDP. Lack of access to food and secure income led to internal displacement and economic refugees, with noted increases in incidences of human trafficking. Women leaving home to work increased by 8.8% in 2017. [FN4] Economic issues were amplified among Dalit and other marginalized castes.

 Nepal has struggled to get back on its feet. The majority of markets and farmers have survived by using marginal land and they are still trying to recover.  In 2016, 9.6% of children suffered from malnutrition. By 2019 this had dropped to 6.6%, but this figure hasn’t yet fallen to pre-earthquake levels. Food prices have remained high and housing prices have shot up significantly, further economically disenfranchising the poor. 10% of urban residents in Nepal are squatters.[FN5]

 The 2015 earthquake significantly damaged the lives of Nepalese people and weakened their ability to produce food, access markets and cash income . Lack of disaster preparedness adapted to mountainous geography, poor management of aid and disruption to traditional agricultural systems exacerbated the crisis and increased food insecurity.

 Resources

1.      These assessments were coordinated by the Government’s Nepal Food Security Monitoring System with technical support from the United Nations World Food Programme and the Food Security Cluster. See  https://documents.wfp.org/stellent/groups/public/documents/ena/wfp275351.pdf.

2.      Chapagain, T., Raizada, M.N. Impacts of natural disasters on smallholder farmers: gaps and recommendations. Agric & Food Secur 6, 39 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-017-0116-6. See https://agricultureandfoodsecurity.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40066-017-0116-6

3.      https://agricultureandfoodsecurity.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40066-017-0116-6

4.      See https://asiafoundation.org/2018/06/06/nepalese-labor-migration-a-status-report/

5.      Chapagain, T., Raizada, M.N. Impacts of natural disasters on smallholder farmers: gaps and recommendations. Agric & Food Secur 6, 39 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1186/s40066-017-0116-6. See https://agricultureandfoodsecurity.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40066-017-0116-6