Nepal

A view on the food crisis from Nepal (Anku Chalise in The Rising Nepal)

"Migration of farmers to the urban areas or growing foreign employment, change in the land use pattern after migration of the rural youth, increasing demand for foodgrains as rural youths convert into consumers from producers and the culture of storing food are the causes affecting the demand and supply of foodgrains. It is still not too late, and the problem could be solved if acted upon right now. Therefore, we need to prepare ourselves carefully before adopting a liberal economic policy. We need to consider the shifting employment pattern and its negative impact on total productivity prior to adopting any economic policy.

As labourers are both the primary producer and ultimate consumer, they could always remain a loser if not looked after by the government. Because of their weakness, they cannot participate in any organised protest against the group making profit. So if the loss keeps on accumulating and reaches an intolerable limit, this group will leave their original occupation and also their place of residence. Migration of inhabitants and the population pressure on the cities are examples of shifting employment from occupations based on agro-forestry to service-based ones."