Climate change hits crop yields in Nepal - report

(August 28, 2009) Changing weather patterns have affected crop production in Nepal pushing hundreds of farmers into debt, aid agency Oxfam said in a report on Friday. Many poor villagers were even eating less as crop yields from their meagre holdings drop due to irregular rains, the agency said, citing accounts given by the farmers. Mountainous Nepal is "extremely vulnerable" to climate change despite its contribution of just 0.025 percent of the global greenhouse gas emissions, among the lowest in the world. Nepal, where nearly 80 percent of its 27 million people depend on farm income, does not have enough irrigation network and poor farmers rely on rainfall which has become irregular and unpredictable, the group said. "The most vulnerable families are forced to exercise coping strategies that include skipping meals, consuming less," it said in the report titled: "Even the Himalayas Have Stopped Smiling." Hari Dahal, a senior official of the agriculture ministry, said Nepal was experiencing the impact of climate change but played down hunger fears.