People in remote villages of Manang have stopped buying subsidised rice from Nepal Food Corporation (NFC). They say the NFC has time and again sold them substandard and even rotten rice. The villagers no longer wish to rely on the state-run food agency.

Laxmi Gurung of Chame said she stopped buying from the NFC depot because it has sold her low quality rice many times. “We could not go on eating the corporation’s rice. Who would want to anyway?” she said.

Karma Jhamyang Lama of Nar village shared a similar view regarding NFC’s subsidised rice. Karma and his neighbours get their rice from Beshisahar these days. 

“We cannot spend our money for damaged rice,” Karma said.

 The NFC’s Chame depot still has 915 quintals of rice that it bought last year. The Humde depot has 564 quintals in its stock. 

Ramchandra Khanal, chief of the NFC’s Chame depot, denied the locals’ claim of selling substandard rice.

“There were some days when we had to sell the rice soaked by rainwater that had leaked from the warehouse roof, but we never sold substandard rice,” he said. 

Khanal believes the decline in the number of people buying subsidised rice is more to do with the opening of the Chame-Upper Manang road. 

“The villagers can now transport the rice from Beshisahar and other places,” he said, adding they have already fixed the problem of leaky roof.