Niraj Prakash Joshi

Determinants of adaptation practices to climate change by Chepang households in the rural Mid-Hills of Nepal

This study analyzes the factors influencing the adoption of various adaptation practices by a highly marginalized indigenous community in the remote rural Mid-Hills of Nepal. The analysis is based on a household survey conducted among 221 Chepang households selected randomly. A multivariate probit model was used to analyze five categories of adaptation choices against a set of socio-economic, institutional, infrastructural, and perception variables. Perception of rainfall changes, size of landholding, status of land tenure, distance to motor road, access to productive credit, information, extension services, and skill development trainings are all influential to enable households to deviate away from traditional coping strategies and adopt suitable practices to adapt to climate vagaries. Policies and development activities should be geared to address these determinants in order to facilitate adaptation.

Perceptions and Realities of Climate Change among the Chepang Communities in Rural Mid-Hills of Nepal

In order to formulate any coping or adaptation strategies, first of all the communities facing climate change should perceive that the changes are indeed taking place. This paper analyzes how the Chepangs, one of the highly marginalized indigenous nationalities living in the remote Mid-Hills of Nepal, perceive climate change. The study is based on household survey conducted among randomly selected 221 Chepang households. The community responses are compared with the actual trends of temperature and rainfall recorded in the meteorological stations located near the study sites. A probit model is used to analyze the characteristics that differentiate the respondents who perceive the changes in line with the recorded data from those who do not. Nearly one-third of the respondents are able to perceive the changes in line with the recorded data, meanwhile there are still many respondents who do not perceive any changes at all. Access to information, and extension services (as indicated by ownership of radio and membership in groups) are the most important factors facilitating perceptions of both temperature and rainfall changes. Cultivation of cash crops also facilitates perceptions of rainfall significantly. On the other hand, formal education and engagement in non-farm income sources reduce the ability to perceive the climatic changes. It is worth noting that, in case of temperature, farming experience is not sufficient to perceive the ongoing changes. Priority must be placed on the dissemination of relevant information at the community level and updating the educational curriculum to include the issues related to climate

Forest and Food Security of Indigenous People : A Case of Chepangs in Nepal

This study was conducted with the objective of analysing the role of forest plant resources in the food security of Chepangs, a highly marginalized indigenous nationality in Nepal. Shaktikhor Village Development Committee (VDC) in Chitwan district and Handikhola VDC in Makawanpur district were purposively selected as the study sites. A total of 120 households, 60 from each VDC were randomly selected for the purpose of household survey conducted using semi-structured interview structure. Relevant information was also collected through key informants’ interview and group discussions. It was found that the average food self-sufficiency of the study community is 7.3 months, while 37.5% of the households are not able to meet the minimum daily calorie requirement of 2,344 cal/AE/day prescribed for the hills. Collection of forest products for consumption and sale forms an important coping strategy to overcome food self-insufficiency for 71.2% of the households. Wild tubers form the staple food of the Chepangs during the period of food shortages, and they play an important role in bridging the hunger gap when the stored food grains are depleted and new harvests are not yet available. Forests play an important role not only in the food security of the Chepang community, but also in the fulfilment of their food diversity and nutritional requirements. There is, thus, a need to exploit the potential of these wild foods so as to complement the staple food crops so that the food security situation of 【Article】 Journal of International Development and Cooperation, Vol.17, No.1, 2011, pp. 113-135 114 Luni PIYA, Keshav Lall MAHARJAN and Niraj Prakash JOSHI the Chepang community can be improved.

Poverty and Food Insecurity in Nepal : A Review

Nepal being the poorest country in the world, poverty remains one of the crucial development agenda in Nepal since it started its development effort in 1956. Therefore, this review paper analyzes the poverty and food insecurity in Nepal. Macro economic indicators of the country i.e., Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth rate and inflation rate shows that the country is historically a low growth country with inflation rate always higher than the GDP growth rate. Therefore, macroeconomic indicators are not in favorable condition to tackle the overarching problem of poverty incidence in the country. Since 1976/77, poverty incidence is in increasing trend in Nepal. It was only in 2003/04, some progress in reducing poverty was reported, which was mainly due to the significantly higher inflow of remittance compared to earlier years, rapid urbanization, and an increase in non-farm incomes. This resulted not only in the decline in proportion of population suffering from poverty but also decline in the absolute number of population suffering from poverty. However, such decline in incidence of poverty was achieved at the cost of increased inequality.The gini coefficient increased from 0.24 in the year 1984/85 to 0.41 in 2003/04. Imbalanced growth in rural and urban areas could be the reason for increase in gini coefficient. Reduction of poverty in urban areas remains always high compared to that of rural areas. Therefore, poverty incidence remains always the highest in Mid-western and Farwestern rural hills. Also, poverty and food insecurity is the highest among female headed household, dalit and ethnic communities, small landholding households, households engaged in laboring and agriculture. This is mainly due to unequal distribution of resources such as land, social discrepancy, and lack of access to basic social and economic structures. Government has been giving the fi rst priority to the reduction of poverty since eighth five year plan (1992). But the government’s programs are failed to reach the target population. For instance government programs represent less than 10% of the national food deficit. Therefore, besides in-depth analysis of poverty at household level in order to understand location specifi c problem of poverty and food insecurity, expansion of government programs focusing on targeted population is very critical in dealing with the problems of poverty and food insecurity.

Livelihood Strategies of Indigenous Nationalities in Nepal : A Case of Chepangs

This paper analyses the livelihood strategies adopted by the Chepangs, a highly marginalized indigenous nationalities of Nepal. Household survey was conducted in Shaktikhor Village Development Committee (VDC) in Chitwan district and Handikhola VDC in Makawanpur district among 120 randomly selected households. Additional information was collected through participatory techniques. Six major livelihood sources were identified viz., farming, wage laboring, forest, handicrafts, skilled non-farm jobs, and remittance. Farming forms the mainstay of livelihood for majority of the households. Skilled non-farm jobs and remittances are comparatively more remunerative livelihood sources, however it forms primary livelihood source for only a few households due to lack of education, assets possession, investment capital and skills. Diversification is adopted as the livelihood strategy by entire households. Combination of farming, wage laboring, and forest is the most dominant strategy although it derives lower income. This implies that the households are constrained from adopting the more remunerative livelihood options. Policies and development efforts should be aimed at improving farming, access to forest resources, and promoting non-farm opportunities for sustainable livelihoods of the Chepangs. 100 Luni PIYA, Keshav Lall MAHARJAN and Niraj Prakash JOSHI

Assessment of Food Self-Sufficiency and Food Security Situation in Nepal

Realizing the importance of food self-sufficiency in achieving the household food security, this paper tried to assess the food self-sufficiency situation in village areas of Nepal. Agriculture was the main source of livelihood and Bahun/Chhetri was the dominant ethnic group. Involvement of households in agriculture was found declining with the attainment of higher level of education resulting into higher concentration of illiterate and just literate manpower in this sector. The major resource determining food self-sufficiency of households, land holding and coverage of irrigation was higher among Bahun/Chhetri ethnic group and in Tarai ecological region. The better irrigation coverage together with relatively high assess to production resources led to the higher yield among Bahun/Chhetri ethnic group and in Tarai. Thus, Tarai was experiencing surplus food crops production, which was merely enough to fulfill the deficit of Hills and Mountain regions. Food self-sufficiency was achieved among 72% of households in Tarai region while the figure of Mountain region was only 11%. Similarly, the highest proportion (53%) of Bahun/Chhetri households achieved food self-sufficiency compared to mere 10% of Occupational caste households. Together with small land holding and land productivity, production shift from food crops to cash crops were also the major factors responsible for food self-insufficiency. Purchasing was the most dominant means to fulfill the deficit food. About 19% of food self-insufficient households were unable to meet minimum level of food security threshold income for deficit months. This constituted 10% of sample households, who were in chronic food insecurity situation. The incidence of chronic food insecurity as well as poverty gap was the highest in female-headed households, Mountain region, Occupational caste, daily wage laborers and small landholders. Education received the highest priority for the cash income expenditure followed by food items and agriculture promotion. This expenditure patterns show the positive indication to move towards food self-sufficiency and ultimately to food security if provided with better off farm employment opportunities and better market for both farm produces and essential inputs.

A Study on Rural Poverty Using Inequality Decomposition in Western Hills of Nepal : A Case of Gulmi District

Involvement of higher proportion of economically active population in agriculture and laboring among the Occupational caste resulted into higher incidence of poverty, which is also severer and deeper. This resulted into as high as 71% incidence of poverty in Banjhkateri, purely remote village. The incidence, depth and severity of poverty are the highest among large family size households, illiterate households, and small land and livestock holding households. Share of income from agriculture, remittance, and salaried job shares is the most significant one contributing 46.1%, 23.3% and 19.0% of total income, respectively. However, income from salaried job and remittance has income disequalizing effect and also has higher factor inequality weight acting as the source of income inequality. Agriculture and laboring, upon which huge proportion of economically active population is engaged and entry is also not restricted, however has income equalizing effect. This suggests the need for promotion of labor-intensive agriculture as a better rural development policy in the rural Nepalese context. In the context of lack of well-defined working hours as well as minimum wage rate such rural development policies should be supplemented by formulation and effective enforcement of labor policy.

Vulnerability of Chepang households to climate change and extremes in the Mid-Hills of Nepal

Rural communities, which depend predominantly on natural resources, are increasingly vulnerable as global climate change makes the weather and extreme weather events more unpredictable. To formulate appropriate policy measures to address their livelihood challenges, assessment of local vulnerability is important. In this study, the vulnerability of Chepang communities in Nepal was analyzed using data collected from 221 households from four villages across four districts. The analysis was based on indices constructed from selected indicators measuring exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. The indicators were weighted using Principal Component Analysis. Inter-village analysis of the vulnerability index indicated that exposure in a locality is modified by the inherent adaptive capacity of the households, and this determines overall vulnerability. Inter-household analysis of vulnerability indicated that poor households with low adaptive capacity were vulnerable irrespective of their location. The availability of non-farm livelihood opportunities and community access to formal/vocational education and skill development training will reduce household vulnerability to climate change. Policy interventions should focus on improving the adaptive capacity of households, prioritizing financial and human assets.

Climate change, agriculture and rural livelihoods in developing countries

Background information on climate change and agriculture.- Global scenario of greenhouse gas emission.- Effects of climate change on plant and animal physiology.- Agriculture in international climate change negotiations.- Cost and opportunities from mitigation and adaptation in agriculture.- Methodologies to assess the impact of climate change in agriculture.- Effects of climate change on regional agriculture production, food price and food insecurity.- Climate change in Nepalese context: Impacts, mitigation issues, and relation with poverty.- Effect of climate variables on yield of major food-crops in Nepal: A time-series analysis.- Community perceptions of climate change and its impacts.

Relationship between Climate Variables and Yield of Food Crops in Nepal : Cases of Makwanpur and Ilam District

Agriculture, being sector largely dependent on climate variables, will be adversely affected by climate change. Therefore, this paper intends to assess how the recent trends of climate variables are affecting yields of major food crops in two hilly districts of Nepal namely, Makwanpur and Ilam based on district level data from 1978-2008. Trends of climate variables show that maximum and minimum temperature in summer as well as winter temperatures are increasing in Makwanpur, but in Ilam minimum temperature in both season shows declining trend. In case of rainfall, it is in increasing trend only during summer in Makwanpur. In all cases inter-annual variation of rainfall is very high. In contrast, crop yield shows some steady trends but in both directions; increase as well as decrease. For instance, except the yield of paddy and maize in Makwanpur, and maize and millet in Ilam all other food crops are in increasing trend. Among these food crops potato shows the highest rate of yield increase. Relating the trends of climate variables with yield of food crops shows that the current trend of minimum temperature has adversely affected yield of maize and paddy in Makwanpur, whereas in Ilam decreasing trend of rainfall has affected yield of paddy adversely. Despite the suppression of yield of these food crops by current trend of climate variables, most of these food crops overcame such suppression leading to the increase in overall yield. However, paddy, maize and millet are not able to overcome such suppression leading to decline in overall yield, thus requires special attention in order to cope with adverse effect of climate change in days to come.