October 19: Karnali Province faces an annual food grain deficit of 19,116 metric tonnes, according to the data provided by the provincial government.

Among its ten districts, Salyan, Rukum West, and Surkhet manage to produce enough food grain for their needs, while the remaining districts must rely on food grain imports.

In particular, Dailekh, Jajarkot, Humla, Kalikot, Jumla, Mugu, and Dolpa districts struggle to produce sufficient food grain to meet their yearly requirements.

Dailekh and Jumla are comparatively less reliant on food grain imports when compared to the other food-deficit districts, said Agriculture Directorate under the Ministry of Land Management, Agriculture, and Cooperatives of the Karnali Province Government.

Chitra Bahadur Rokaya, Director at the Directorate, emphasized that the provincial government is actively working on implementing various programs aimed at achieving food self-sufficiency in all of its districts.

To reach this objective, the province has embraced the concept of becoming an "organic province," and all relevant stakeholders play a crucial role in the success of this initiative.

A 2019 survey conducted in the hilly and mountainous areas of the province by organizations such as the World Food Programme, EPI, and FAO revealed that 28 percent of households in the province did not have access to an adequate amount of food.

 In this group, 8 percent of households faced a critical shortage of food, indicative of an extreme hunger problem in the region. (RSS)