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ARS Home » Midwest Area » Urbana, Illinois » Global Change and Photosynthesis Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #300719
Title: Identifying pathways for improving household food self-sufficiency outcomes in the hills of Nepal

Author
item KARKI, TIKA - Tribhuvan University
item SAH, S - Tribhuvan University
item THAPA, R - Tribhuvan University
item MCDONALD, ANDREW - International Maize & Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT)
item Davis, Adam

Submitted to: PLOS ONE
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/20/2015
Publication Date: 5/5/2015
Citation: Karki, T.B., Sah, S.K., Thapa, R.B., McDonald, A.J., Davis, A.S. 2015. Identifying pathways for improving household food self-sufficiency outcomes in the hills of Nepal. PLoS One. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0127513.

Interpretive Summary: Alleviating hunger in mountain regions is a complex challenge, with many facets. Here our focus is on how to prioritize the different aspects of food insecurity, including comparatively high levels of system diversity and crop-livestock integration, challenging terrain and transportation bottlenecks, declining labor availability due to out-migration, and low literacy rates, among others. We administered a needs survey to 77 households in Lungaun, Pang, and Pathlekhet, with a total of 80 variables covering five performance areas; resulting data were analyzed using multivariate techniques. The best statistical models for food security highlighted associations with agronomic management, including yields of maize and fingermillet within a relay cropping system and adoption of improved crop cultivars. Secondary analyses of the variables retained in the first model again focused primarily on crop and livestock management, as opposed to socioeconomic or biophysical characteristics. Although many factors can affect food security outcomes in developing mountain regions, it appears that continued emphasis on agronomic improvements is warranted.

Technical Abstract: Maintaining and improving food security in mountain regions is an ongoing challenge. There are many facets to the problem, including comparatively high levels of system diversity and crop-livestock integration, challenging terrain and transportation bottlenecks, declining labor availability due to out-migration, and low literacy rates, among others. Using a nonparametric multivariate approach, we quantified primary associations underlying current levels of food security in the mid-hills of Nepal. A needs survey was administered to 77 households in Lungaun, Pang, and Pathlekhet, with a total of 80 variables covering five performance areas; resulting data were analyzed using Classification and Regression Trees (CART). The most parsimonious CART model for food security highlighted associations with agronomic management, including yields of maize and fingermillet within a relay cropping system and adoption of improved crop cultivars. Secondary analyses of the variables retained in the first model again focused primarily on crop and livestock management, as opposed to socioeconomic or biophysical characteristics. Although many factors can condition food security outcomes in developing mountain regions, it appears that continued emphasis on agronomic improvements is warranted independent of factors such as land holding size that, in any case, are very difficult to change through development interventions. Complementary work on diagnosing crop production constraints in the same farmer fields reveals that major gains in productivity are possible in crops like maize through management interventions such as improved weed control and maintenance of optimal plant populations that few, if any, farmers are currently practicing.