Food crisis becoming acute in western Nepal

Thousands of people in the mid-western and far western region of the country are facing severe food shortages, raising concerns that it might soon turn into a famine Reports said that thousands of people in rural areas of mid-western Rukum and Rolpa in the far western region are starving due ... ...severe shortage of food items, while efforts to get food to them have been hampered by lack of road connectivity, bad weather (for helicopters to supply food), strikes and fuel shortage.Worsening the already stark food crisis in Rolpa, the office of Nepal Food Corporation in the district headquarters Libang has stopped selling rice from Sunday, saying that it has run out of stock.caused panic among the people living in Rolpa, sending them in hordes to the office to demand for rice.come to NFC to purchase rice as the prices here are low compared to private shops.A report published in today's edition of the Himalayan Times says a decline in maize and wheat production this year was another reason for food scarcity in the district.The report said that Dalit communities in northern parts of Rolpa are the worst hit by food shortages.People from rural areas have started coming to the district headquarters Liwang in search of food, the report "If we cannot take rice from the NFC office, we will have nothing to eat," Budi Maya Buda of Dhangsi told the paper.Similarly, people in Rukum, Accham, Bajhang and Bajura are also reeling under acute food shortage caused by obstruction of roads by floods and landslides, with some VDCs reeling under food shortage for nearly a month.their efforts to send food items by air has been dampened due to bad weather.Many families in these food hit district are coping by simply eating less or sending their meagre possessions to A recent World Food Program (WFP) report says that rising food prices coupled with destroyed harvests are hitting the poor people in rural Nepal very badly.

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