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From food security to food wellbeing: examining food security through the lens of food wellbeing in Nepal’s rapidly changing agrarian landscape

Author

Listed:
  • Hom Gartaula

    (Canadian Mennonite University)

  • Kirit Patel

    (Canadian Mennonite University)

  • Derek Johnson

    (University of Manitoba)

  • Rachana Devkota

    (Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD))

  • Kamal Khadka

    (University of Guelph)

  • Pashupati Chaudhary

    (Local Initiatives for Biodiversity, Research and Development (LI-BIRD))

Abstract

This paper argues that existing food security and food sovereignty approaches are inadequate to fully understand contradictory human development, nutrition, and productivity trends in Nepalese small-scale agriculture. In an attempt to bridge this gap, we developed a new food wellbeing approach that combines insights from food security, food sovereignty, and social wellbeing perspectives. We used the approach to frame 65 semi-structured interviews in a cluster of villages in Kaski district in the mid-hills of Nepal on various aspects of food security, agriculture, off-farm livelihood opportunities, and women’s wellbeing. Our results indicate that context-specific subjective and social relational factors highlighted by the food wellbeing approach are key to understanding a paradox of increased food security, yet decreasing sustainability of small-scale agriculture. Increased levels of male out-migration and opportunities for local off-farm work have increased local capacity to purchase food. The positive consequences for food security are indicated by evidence that households with non-farm income sources had better food sufficiency, absorption capacity, nutritional quality, and stability of food supply. These off-farm employment opportunities have also led to the greater involvement of low caste groups and women in small-scale agriculture. This has been empowering for both groups and led to an increase in wellbeing, particularly for those women who have become de facto heads of household. Yet, small landholdings, persistent patterns of unequal and absentee land ownership, sharecropping, women’s overwork, and the aspirations of low caste farmers and women away from agriculture are simultaneously driving the erosion of local small-scale agricultural productivity and ecological sustainability.

Suggested Citation

  • Hom Gartaula & Kirit Patel & Derek Johnson & Rachana Devkota & Kamal Khadka & Pashupati Chaudhary, 2017. "From food security to food wellbeing: examining food security through the lens of food wellbeing in Nepal’s rapidly changing agrarian landscape," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(3), pages 573-589, September.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:34:y:2017:i:3:d:10.1007_s10460-016-9740-1
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-016-9740-1
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Anna Rogala & Renata Nestorowicz & Ewa Jerzyk, 2020. "On the Way to Food Well-Being. A Critical Analysis of the Food Well-Being Concept and the Possibilities of Its Empirical Verification," Tržište/Market, Faculty of Economics and Business, University of Zagreb, vol. 32(SI), pages 31-48.
    2. Sikha Karki & Paul Burton & Brendan Mackey & Clair Alston-Knox, 2021. "Status and drivers of food insecurity and adaptation responses under a changing climate among smallholder farmers households in Bagmati Province, Nepal," Environment, Development and Sustainability: A Multidisciplinary Approach to the Theory and Practice of Sustainable Development, Springer, vol. 23(10), pages 14642-14665, October.
    3. Rachana Devkota & Helen Hambly Odame & John Fitzsimons & Roshan Pudasaini & Manish N. Raizada, 2020. "Evaluating the Effectiveness of Picture-Based Agricultural Extension Lessons Developed Using Participatory Testing and Editing with Smallholder Women Farmers in Nepal," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(22), pages 1-27, November.
    4. Subedi, Yuba Raj & Kristiansen, Paul & Cacho, Oscar, 2022. "Reutilising abandoned cropland in the Hill agroecological region of Nepal: Options and farmers’ preferences," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 117(C).
    5. Xiuling Ding & Qian Lu & Lipeng Li & Apurbo Sarkar & Hua Li, 2023. "Does Labor Transfer Improve Farmers’ Willingness to Withdraw from Farming?—A Bivariate Probit Modeling Approach," Land, MDPI, vol. 12(8), pages 1-27, August.
    6. Jessica R. Ham, 2020. "“Every day it’s tuo zaafi”: considering food preference in a food insecure region of Ghana," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 907-917, September.

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