Power News: Feeding the Karnali

Despite decades of food assistance from the government and aid agencies, little seems to have changed in the Karnali region. Food shortages are as bad as ever, and there are claims that dependency on subsidised rice has meant what little was left of cultivation has faltered. The general impression is that the dry and rocky terrain of the mid and far west region cannot sustain wide-scale agriculture and that there is no alternative to trucking in food from the outside. But is this really necessary? Documentary film-maker Gorakh Bista of Srinagar, Humla, doesn't seem to think so. The government's lack of interest in protecting Nepal's hill crops may mean this is not an unlikely prospect. Pantha says that hill crops have long been neglected. The government has only made three varieties of millet available in decades, compared to hundreds of varieties of wheat and rice.