“We now harvest only one quintal of wheat in the same
area where we used to harvest two quintals,” said Hari of ward no 4,
Dandaphaya Village Development Committee, Humla district. He continued
to add to my limited knowledge of the real impact of global warming and
climate change on people living up in the Himalayas, by narrating his
personal experiences. He said during his grandfather’s days they used to
have snow up to nine feet, during his growing up days they used to have
snow up to three to five feet but now, it was less than three feet.
As a layperson, I thought that this must have made life easier for them
as they would have less difficulty moving around. Hari smiled and
mentioned that although the heat had increased and the snow level had
gone down, it actually had an adverse effect on their livelihood and
lifestyle. At that altitude, cold weather conditions are far more
suitable for agriculture and harvesting.
The main crops they grow there was wheat, potato, chuli, dhatelo, khamu,
and okhar. While earlier they also grew Phapar (buckwheat), now it was
getting increasingly difficult to do so. In fact, the production of all
crops had decreased and the size of the potato had become smaller.
Chuli, dhatelo, khamu, okhar were grown for their nutritional value and
the oil from these products would be enough for the entire village. The
oil would further be sold off to Simkot, headquarters of Humla district,
for Rs 50 per liter. However, as the production of these had
drastically gone down, they were forced to buy ‘Dhara’ brand oil from
Simkot at Rs 300 per liter.
Dandaphaya VDC of Humla District is at an altitude of around 3,500.00
meters above sea level, up in the Himalayas. During a visit to this VDC
recently, the dominant community there were the dalits, including sunar,
kami, and bisworkarma. The government has categorized the population
into four types based on food sufficiency—the Ka, with people who have
less than three months of food sufficiency; the KHa with those who have
food sufficiency for up to three to six months, Ga with six to one year
of food sufficiency and GHa with those who have more than one year’s
food sufficiency. The people I met at the Dandaphaya VDC all belonged to
the Ka category. They have only one harvest per year of wheat or
phapar (buckwheat), potato, jau, kodo, peaches, apple, chuli, and herbs
including attis, satuwa, padam and chalu.
FOOD DEFICIENCY
Government should bring programs to make remote districts like Humla self-sufficient rather than dependent on outside sources.
The villagers informed me this VDC would earlier be covered with snow
for about eight months a year, but now it was covered with snow for
barely six months. Their forefathers had been healthier as compared to
them, although awareness about cleanliness and distribution of important
medicines had grown. They attributed their forefathers’ better health
to a diet of crops like phapar and kodo, which had high nutritional
values. Now, however, villagers have started to emulate the urban
lifestyle and eat polished white rice, which is not grown in Humla. The
UN World Food Program started distributing white rice as part of the
food for work program and consequently, the people developed the habit
of eating rice. In the lower altitude areas of Humla, a special type of
red rice is grown, which again has a high nutritional value. Instead of
distributing white rice flown in from elsewhere, it would have made more
sense to enable people to grow more red rice, wheat and buckwheat that
would be more nutritional and suitable for the local population.
Humla district is one of the remotest districts of Karnali zone in
mid-west development region with its district headquarter at Simikot.
Politically, Humla is divided into 27 Village Development Committees
(VDCs). The district, with a population of 40,595 with around 6,974
households, is known to face acute food deficiency now and then. The
white rice supplied to the district by the government is distributed to
local inhabitants at a subsidized rate. However, it is hardly ever
enough, is more costly and cannot be grown locally.
While introducing food in a district like Humla, where the only mode of
transportation is either by foot or by air, from places like Nepalgunj
and Surkhet, it would be far more appropriate to introduce crops which
can be grown there. Shouldn’t the government have a policy of
introducing projects and schemes which make rural, remote districts like
Humla self-sufficient rather than dependent on outside sources?
An international conference of mountain countries on climate change was
held in Kathmandu in the month of April earlier this year in order to
evolve a consensus among the countries to work together to meet the
challenges posed by climate change. If policies are being formulated to
tackle the impact of climate change in the mountains, it should not only
look to address the direct impact of weather and climatic conditions
but also into government and multilateral policies which might have
contributed to food deficiency. The focus should be to understand the
local culture and tradition as well as viability and to move towards
self sufficiency rather than external dependence.
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