Nepal farmers need urgent aid, says UN

LONDON: Farmers in earthquake-hit Nepal urgently need $20 million in emergency aid to plant crops in the summer and winter cropping seasons, protect their livestock and avert the threat of hunger facing a million people, the UN said on Friday.
In the six districts hit hardest by the earthquakes that struck Nepal on April 25 and May 12, half of all farming households lost most of their stored crops of rice, maize, wheat and millet, said the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO).
Farmers need seeds and fertilizer for the summer cropping season, while irrigation systems must be repaired to facilitate planting ahead of the winter season, the UN agency said. “Agriculture is a critical priority because two-thirds of Nepalis depend on farming for their livelihoods,” said Nepal’s FAO representative Somsak Pipoppinyo.
A million people in Nepal are at risk of hunger, and this number could grow if farmers do not receive support to rebuild their livelihoods and become more resilient, Pipoppinyo said. The two earthquakes killed some 8,800 people and injured 22,000 others in the impoverished Himalayan nation.
The earthquakes killed 16 percent of cattle and 36 percent of poultry in the six worst-affected districts, and the remaining livestock urgently require shelter, feed water, medicine and vaccinations, the UN agency said.
Some 40,000 bags of rice seeds have been sent to farmers in the six hardest-hit districts to plant before the monsoon season.