Situation report on Nepal’s agrifood systems: September 2023

Overall assessment: Nepal’s agrifood systems remained largely stable with moderately higher year-on-year inflation of 7.5 percent in August 2023 against the target of 6.5 percent. Year-on-year inflation in food prices (8.9 percent) and the depreciation of the Nepali currency against the USD have generally put pressure on consumers. Cereal prices continue to remain high: Annual inflation in cereal grains and their products’ prices increased by 13.2 percent – a large jump – in August 2023. Such rises in prices may be partially attributed to speculation resulting from global paddy supply challenges followed by India’s restrictions on rice exports, worsening the issue of already declining domestic supply in 2022 compared to the previous year. The rising price of cereals will affect poor households who spend a relatively greater share of their budget on cereals. Laborers experienced marginal decline in their real wage rate: Year-on-year growth in wages was 6.7 percent in August 2023, somewhat less than the inflation rate of 7.5 percent. A similar trend was noticed for agricultural laborers for the same period. The lower wage rate compared to inflation can directly hit the daily paid laborers to afford sufficient food.

Bibliographic Details

Main Authors:	Palikhe, A., Maharjan, N.K., Kumar, A., Adhikari, M., Gupta, S., Minot, Nicholas, Dorosh, Paul, Kishore, Avinash, Koirala, Pankaj, Krupnik, Timothy J.
Format:	Report biblioteca
Language:	English
Published:	CSISA||TAFSSA 2023
Subjects:	agrifood systems, food prices, macroeconomics, rice, wheat, fruits, tomatoes, pumpkins,
Online Access:	https://hdl.handle.net/10568/134958 https://hdl.handle.net/10883/22775
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