The role oF local power relations in household vulnerability to Climate Change in humla, nepal - Climate Change Adaptation and Development: Transforming Paradigms and Practices - page 207

25

20

15

Food secure households
Food insecure households

10

5

0

Lama Chhetri Thakuri Dalits

Figure 11.4 Number of semi-structured interviews in the three villages categorized
into food-secure and food-insecure households related to castes and/or social group

while in Syaandaa and Khankhe, where only 23 per cent and 15 per cent of
the interviewees respectively consider themselves food secure, the impacts of
changing rainfall patterns are perceived as much more severe.
Interestingly, even though subsistence agriculture and livestock are the
main livelihood strategies, agricultural production or access to agricultural
assets are not necessarily the main determinants of vulnerability on the village
level. Analysis of the quantitative interview data shows that while households
in Khaagaalgaon and Syaandaa have on average similar production levels 4 (7.5
quintals per year), their food-security situations are very different. Similarly,
non-food-secure households in Khankhe cultivate plots quite similar in size
to those of food-secure households in Khaagaalgaon (4.5 haal 5 versus 4 haal,
respectively).
This does not mean that access to agricultural assets is unimportant;
however, it can be meaningfully understood only when seen as part of the larger
vulnerability context at the household level. Analysis of the differences between
households within the villages reveals important social inequities related to
land access in the villages that are most food insecure; and that social, political
and economic relations of exclusion, as represented in the caste system, are
particularly powerful in explaining food insecurity.
In Khankhe, all of the households belonging to the lowest caste (Dalits)
consider themselves food insecure, while 29 per cent of the higher caste
(Thakuris) report food security throughout the year. An average Dalit household
in Khankhe produces less than one third of the food, and has only about half
as many livestock, as an average Thakuri household (9 versus 16 animals
respectively). The better-off also have on average (median) five times as much
land as the Dalits (16 haal versus 3.5 haal respectively). In Syaandaa, while all
villagers belong to the same caste (Chhetri), food-secure households on average
cultivate larger areas, produce more food and have more livestock than food-
insecure households. In contrast, in Khaagaalgaon, differences between poor