Food and Environment

Background Household food deficiency due to low agricultural productivity, limited livelihood opportunities, inefficient food distribution system, weak market linkage, poor infrastructure and lack of awareness among general public about healthy food habit are some of the development challenges in Nepal. Within the country western Nepal suffer more from poverty and hunger with 37% of the people living below the poverty line compared to the national average of 25.16%. Similarly, productivity of major crops is significantly lower than the national average which is already among the lowest in South Asia. Per capita consumption of animal products (32 litres of milk, 7.5 kg of meat and 6.4 eggs per capita per annum) is among the lowest in the region hunger indices pointing to an extremely alarming situation. Household food balance (result of food inflow, household production, household consumption and outflow) is negative almost throughout the year in the region.  Government of

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Summery   Millions of sheep and kangaroos share the same habitat in the sheep rangelands of southern Australia and dietary competition between these two species has been a matter of concern to pastoralists, conservation ecologists and animal scientists for long time. This issue has been tried to be addressed in this article. It is found that sheep and kangaroos both positively select grass and forb resulting considerable overlapping in their diet during flush season. But when grasses are in short supply during drought, sheep are forced to eat more of less preferred vegetation (chenopods). Sheep are more flexible than kangaroos to shift into chenopods and other shrubs decreasing the overlap in diet during dry season. Dietary competition is not significant when pasture biomass production is high (>30 g DM/m 2 ) but it requires due attention when there is low biomass production during drought. Issue has been discussed and recommendation has been d

Scaling up Climate Services in Nepal in the Context of Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Being large number of farmers depending on subsistence agriculture on rain-fed land, Nepal is particularly vulnerable to the impacts of global climate change and frequent spells of weather extremes. Unique geographical terrain, insufficient capacity of public institutions and almost absence of early warning system with regard to climate services even intensify such vulnerability of small holder farmers. Although farmers have well adapted through ages of experiences to normal seasonal variation in weathers, they are not sufficiently prepared to cope with recent rapid and erratic climate and weather variability. Effective climate services offering reliable climate information and advisory services to farmers, so that they can prepare themselves for such changes and make informed decisions, are very crucial in this context.

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Jagat Bahadur Shahi (name changed) of Mugu, one of the remote districts of Nepal, hardly remembers when he has been able to feed their fill to his children last time. His six years old daughter and four years old son are so severely malnourished that anyone with kind heart cannot stop tear rolling down his/her eyes seeing them. These children had to bear the demise of their loving mother and Jagat Bahadur's caring wife last year as she was not lucky enough to get adequate food during her pregnancy.   Pouring salt on his wound, his two years old daughter leaved the world last month due to malnutrition.  Every morning Jagat Bahadur wakes up with a dream of having enough food to feed his children. He has a desire neither for a cozy house nor for a luxury car. He doesn't have a dream to send his children in expensive private school.   He just prays to have a handful of rice for his two little cuties. 

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai The Nepalese economy is fundamentally agrarian and the agriculture contributes to approximately one third of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and the largest source of informal employment to the people.   Reducing poverty, improving food security and achieving sustainable development cannot be imagined in the agrarian economy like Nepal without inclusive development of agriculture sector. Two major requirements for the development of agriculture sector in our context are adequate investment and conducive policies.  One of the major constraints faced by the agriculture sector in Nepal is the under-investment from both public and private sectors. Ministry of Agriculture Development is receiving approximately 3% of national budget which is not sufficient to promote adequate agricultural growth and ensure food security to ever-growing population. Out of this inadequate allocation, significant amount of public expenditure is being expended to give price

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai "Food Security" is one of major elements of development and poverty alleviation and has been the goal of many international and national public organizations. The issue is so important that according to the state of food insecurity in the world 2012 published by FAO around 870 million people (out of which 852 million from developing countries) are estimated to have been undernourished in the period 2010-12. Although the phrase "Food Security" is being used widely, the definition and concept of food security is elusive and being evolved and expanded over time.

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Emperor penguins ( Aptenodytes forsteri) are regarded as an icon of Antarctica due to its peculiar appearance and behaviour. These are the largest of all penguins adapted to extreme climatic condition of Antarctica [ 1 ] and are particularly susceptible to environmental changes in southern ocean as a result of global climate change due to being ice-obligate species [ 2 ] . Size of the bird also increases its susceptibility to climate change [ 3 ] and its morphology which prevent them to forage up to greater depth and range make the situation even worse [ 2 ] . Alteration in sea ice condition, which ultimately affects availability of pray and breeding and moulting of these birds, significantly affects their population [ 2 ] . 

by Yadav Sharma Bajagai Swine are particularly susceptible to increased environmental temperature because evaporative cooling by sweating is of limited value to them due to barely functional sweat glands. Impacts of thermal stress on pig due to increased ambient temperature are described here briefly.   For Impacts of Climate Change on Cattle , Click Here.

Following are some typical consequences when sales volume, number of customers, or profit margin is decreased in an organization. a) Decrease in capacity of the organization to invest in new technology Decreased capacity of the organization to invest in new technology due to reduced profit margin leads to the decreased capacity of the organization to compete with others in the market resulting decreased market share. Reduced market share results less revenue which in turn decreases profit margin.