Nepal is 85^th most food insecure country in the world though 65.5% of its population is dependent on agriculture, according to the global food security index 2015.

Half of the small and marginal farmers and majority of landless agriculture workers are below the poverty line.

The government has launched mega programmes and has policies in place to overcome hunger/malnutrition. However, benefits of such provisions hardly reach the beneficiaries. The index has blamed inadequate knowledge, strong lobby of international food industries and ineffective governance are some of the common causes.

Keeping this in mind, DanChurchAid’s “Improving Food Security Governance in South & South East Asia through strengthened participation of organisations of marginalised farmers” project, in partnership with LWF and FIAN Nepal, organised a two-day workshop for journalists working in this sector.

The two day event was held in Dhulikhel on May 18-19 with the objective to build the capacity of journalists in food security governance and facilitate more in-depth reporting on the issue.

The sessions were facilitated by senior Nepali media persons while the Climate Change Programme Director at Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), presented her paper on effectively reporting the issues of climate change, food security and agriculture in mass media.

“There were lots of insightful interaction and discussions. The enthusiasm of the participants to bring positive changes in food security status in Nepal was noteworthy,” said Vineet Kumar from CSE India.

A similar sensitization workshop will also be held in the far western regional of Nepal. We will also be providing eight fellowships to regional journalists interested in doing in-depth reporting in the issue.

“A network of journalists working on the food security has also been formed .They will be meeting every quarter to discuss the progress and emerging issues on right to food, food security governance and food sovereignty. The materials produced by the journalists will be used for evidence based advocacy on the issue,” said Dr. Purna B. Nepali- Regional Project Coordinator of DCA.

The workshop was organised in technical partnership with Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), India. The project is funded by the European Union.