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Land and Livestock Ownership and Household Food Security in Nepal

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Agriculture, Natural Resources and Food Security

Part of the book series: Sustainable Development Goals Series ((SDGS))

Abstract

Do land and livestock ownership play a role in addressing household food security in Nepal? This chapter empirically investigates the associations between agriculture—specifically the land and livestock ownerships and food security—in Nepal. Although over two-third of the households rely on agriculture for livelihood, slightly over one-half (52%) of the households are food insecure. More importantly, while a large proportion of holdings in Nepal own at least some land and animals, the presence of a large fraction of food-insecure households raise the above question. Using the sustainable livelihood (SL) framework, which has been widely used to assess the factors influencing various livelihood outcomes including food security, this chapter investigates the issue at the household level using the nationally representative 2016 Nepal Demographic Health Survey (NDHS) data. This data provides unique opportunity to examine the question. The results based on the multilevel regression (binary logistic and OLS regressions) show that the ownership of both land and livestock are significantly and positively associated with household-level food security, adjusting for other factors such as age, gender, and education of the household head, household size, a household’s wealth status and geographical location of a household. Indeed, at the household level, the ownership of land and livestock reduced the food insecurity problem. The evidence, in general, suggests that while agriculture is important in addressing the food insecurity challenge in the country, it’s not sufficient and a household’s access to other capital assets such as education, wealth status, and geographical location of a household are equally important for solving the problem. As Covid-19 is still evolving, the post-Covid-19 effects on food security is beyond the scope of this chapter. Overall, any policy that provides the ownership of land and animals to the households will help lessen food insecurity problem in the country.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    A moderately active adult man (18–50 years of age) requires about 2400–2800 kcal of energy intake and a moderately active adult woman of this age requires about 2000–2200 kcal of energy intake.

    Source: Institute of Medicine. Dietary Reference Intakes for Energy, Carbohydrate, Fibre, Fat, Fatty Acids, Cholesterol, Protein, and Amino Acids. Washington (DC): The National Academies Press; 2002. https://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines/appendix-2/.

  2. 2.

    Recall period may vary—“in the past 30 days” or “in the past 12 months” depending upon the context.

  3. 3.

    The country now has 263 municipalities, and 59% of the total population lives in urban areas. Thus, the 2016 NDHS results are based on the updated urban–rural classification.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Agriculture and Forestry University, Bharatpur, Nepal

    Prem Bhandari

  2. University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA

    Prem Bhandari

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  1. Prem Bhandari
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Correspondence to Prem Bhandari .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Inst for Study and Dvlpmt Worldwide, Global Evergreening Alliance, Homebush West, NSW, Australia

    Jagadish Timsina

  2. Ctr for Sust Agricultural Systems, ILSE, University of Southern Queensland, Toowoomba, QLD, Australia

    Tek N. Maraseni

  3. Bioversity International, Nepal, Kathmandu, Nepal

    Devendra Gauchan

  4. Adjunct Faculty, Curtin University, Eden Hill, WA, Australia

    Jagannath Adhikari

  5. University of Canberra, North Strathfield, Sydney, NSW, Australia

    Hemant Ojha

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Bhandari, P. (2022). Land and Livestock Ownership and Household Food Security in Nepal. In: Timsina, J., Maraseni, T.N., Gauchan, D., Adhikari, J., Ojha, H. (eds) Agriculture, Natural Resources and Food Security. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09555-9_15

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-09555-9_15

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