Food security and sustainability through adaptation to climate change: Lessons learned from Nepal

Abstract

Climate change adaptation strategies play a crucial role in smallholder farm households' food security and sustainability, particularly under climate change extremes. This study, therefore, examines the role of climate change extremes and smallholder farmers' adaptation strategies in preventing food insecurity in Nepal. Data was collected in 2021 from 400 smallholder households in three agro-ecological zones, namely Mountains, Hill, and Terai. Around 12 % of households were found to be food insecure based on food consumption scores. However, another food security indicator reduced coping strategy index, showing that about 22 % of the households used different short-term strategies to cope with food insecurity. Results from the ordered logit models show that exposure to drought (climate change extremes) adversely impacts the food security status of the households in each study area. Conversely, adopting various adaptation strategies, such as irrigation, agroforestry, and temporary migration, positively impact household food security. In addition, the findings highlight the importance of household head education, market, credit, and information access in enhancing the adaptive capacity of smallholder farmers to cope with food insecurity. As a recommendation, adaptation strategies to food insecurity should be carefully tailored to each agro-ecological zone's specific socio-economic and institutional characteristics.