How does Transnational Labour Migration Shape Food Security and Food Sovereignty? Evidence from Nepal

ABSTRACT

Achieving food security has become a critical development issue. It is more so for Nepal, a country facing serious social and economic problems. In recent years, Nepal has seen rising temporary-work migration of people to foreign countries with implications for food security, even in distant rural places. In this article, we examine differential effects of transnational labour migration on food security and food sovereignty in migrant-sending rural areas. In so doing, we draw on the fresh insights gained from case studies carried out in villages representing two distinct geographical regions of Nepal – Tarai (Plains) and Hills. Findings show complex and contradictory effects of transnational labour migration. We argue that this form of migration has led to improved food security on a short-term basis through remittances and migration-induced rural employment. At the same time, it has also caused erosion in food sovereignty through generating adverse effects on local food production, and thus creating growing dependence on food imports and threatening poor people's access to food. Rather than considering food security and food sovereignty as rival frameworks, this paper suggests that combining the two concepts offer rich and broader understandings of the impacts of migration on rural people’s access to food.

KEYWORDS:

• Dispossession
• food sovereignty
• labour migration
• remittances
• South Asia

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

ORCID

Ramesh Sunam http://orcid.org/0000-0003-3020-4787

Notes

1. The real name of the study village has been disguised to protect the identities of research participants.

2. NRs = Nepali Rupees. US$1 = NRs 90 as of 10 August 2012.

3. Sharecropping in this village refers to farming arrangements between landowners and tenants in which both parties share harvests equally, but costs of farming are usually borne by the tenants.

4. Dalits represent a marginalised group in Nepal who have been oppressed because of their low caste status in the Hindu caste hierarchy. In the past, they used to be called ‘achhut’ (untouchables).