Nepal'in Tarımsal Ekolojik Bölgeleri: FEWS NET Raporu Değerlendirmesi

Nepal Context Report

Nepal Context Report Executive Summary Source: FEWS NET Executive Summary Nepal is a landlocked South Asian country with significant agroecological diversity shaped by elevation, monsoon rainfall, and complex terrain. The three primary ecological zones — Terai, Hills, and Mountains — drive distinct livelihood systems, agricultural production patterns, and levels of market access. The Terai is the country’s main food-producing region, while the Hills and Mountains face structural production deficits due to limited arable land, lower productivity, and high transportation costs. Rural livelihoods are dominated by smallholder, largely rainfed, agriculture, livestock rearing, and agricultural wage labor, alongside a substantial reliance on migration and remittances. Urban households depend primarily on wage labor, services, and market purchases. Nepal’s macroeconomic environment is relatively stable, supported by remittances, moderate inflation, and foreign exchange reserves; however, structural constraints, including a persistent trade deficit, limited industrial capacity, and high dependence on imports, increase vulnerability to external economic shocks. Acute food insecurity is primarily driven by limited purchasing power, especially among poor households in remote Hill and Mountain areas and hazard-prone parts of the Terai. Domestic production of staple crops — particularly rice, maize, and wheat — combined with imports, supports overall supply; however, dependence on food imports and cross-border trade, particularly with India, exposes the country to regional price volatility and trade disruptions. Seasonal food insecurity is a defining feature, with peak risk during the June to September lean season when household food stocks decline, labor opportunities are limited, and access to markets may be constrained. High levels of poverty, small and fragmented landholdings, and uneven access to markets, infrastructure, and services contribute to persistent risk of acute food insecurity, particularly among marginalized populations. Recurrent shocks — including floods, landslides, droughts, and economic disruptions — further constrain livelihoods, disrupt agricultural production, and limit market functioning. Monsoon-related flooding in the Terai and landslides in higher elevations frequently result in localized crop losses, reduced labor demand, and temporary market isolation. In addition, fluctuations in food and fuel prices and changes in migration opportunities affect household purchasing power, particularly given widespread reliance on remittances. Overall, food security in Nepal is shaped by structural constraints, geographic inequalities, and high exposure to climatic and economic shocks. Political Geography The Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal is a landlocked country in South Asia, occupying nearly 57,000 square miles with a roughly 142 square mile strip in the northwestern corner of the country. Nepal shares borders with India to the east, west, and south, and China to the north (Figure 1). Since the adoption of the 2015 constitution, Nepal is a federal democratic republic with three tiers of government: federal, provincial, and local. The country is divided into seven provinces, 77 districts, and 753 local government units (LGUs). LGUs are further divided into 293 municipalities (organized under the Municipal Association of Nepal; MuAN), while the remainder are categorized as "rural municipalities" (organized under the National Association of Rural Municipalities in Nepal; NARMIN). Nepal’s capital, Kathmandu, serves as the political and administrative center, but power and development are unevenly distributed across the country due to the constraints of mountainous terrain, limited infrastructure, and variable market connectivity. Nepal is a member of the United Nations (UN), South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC), and Asia Cooperation Dialogue (ACD). Nepal's political system is a multi-party democracy. Executive power is exercised by the prime minister and the ministerial cabinet, while legislative power is held by parliament. The federal election in March 2026, alongside the youth-led protests in September 2025, resulted in the establishment of a new government, marking a significant turning point in Nepal's political landscape. The World Bank estimates that the protests and subsequent dissolution of the House of Representatives resulted in both the loss of lives and economic losses estimated at 1.3 percent of the GDP. Location and geography play a defining role in Nepal’s relations with India and China, particularly through shared river systems and trade. This has led Nepal to adopt a foreign policy of non-alignment and neutrality to promote trade, border, and resource-sharing agreements. Nepal and India are hydrologically intertwined. Agreements on rivers such as the Kosi, Gandak, and Mahakali support irrigation, flood control, and hydropower development, linking Nepal’s internal agricultural systems to downstream food production in India. These water-sharing arrangements, while facilitating cooperation, also reflect asymmetries in bargaining power and ongoing debates about equity and sovereignty. Nepal does not follow the Gregorian calendar and instead follows the Bikram Sambat, B.S., calendar, which is 56 years and 8.5 months ahead of Gregorian calendar. Typically, the new month starts on the fifteenth day of the Gregorian month. Natural Geography Nepal exhibits an extreme geographic diversity, ranging from low-lying plains to the highest mountains on earth. Nepal is home to the Himalaya Mountains, including Mount Everest, the highest mountain on Earth. The mountainous topography is a source of major river basins such as the Koshi, Narayani (India’s Gandak River), and the Karnali River basins. Hydropower dams such as the Kulekhani, Upper Tamakoshi, and Kaligandaki are also built along some of the big rivers. These river basins and dams provide fresh water for domestic and industrial use, irrigation, hydroelectric power generation, tourism, and recreation. Source: ReliefWeb/Government of Nepal Nepal contains three ecological zones that run east to west: Terai, Hills Region, and Mountain Region (Figure 2). The Terai, located in the southern border of the country at elevations generally below 1,000 meters above sea level, including Siwalik, consists of flat, fertile plains formed by major river systems originating in the Himalayas. North of the Terai lie the Hills, characterized as mid-hill and valley systems, interspaced by undulating terrain, terraced slopes, and mid-elevation valleys that lie between an elevation of 1,000 to 3,000 meters. Agriculture in the Hills is heavily dependent on terracing to manage steep slopes and prevent erosion, and soils are more variable and often less fertile than in the Terai, requiring careful management. Further north, the Mountain region rises above 3,000 meters and includes high mountains and the Himalayas. Harsh weather conditions, short growing seasons, and limited arable land constrain crop production to hardy crops such as barley, buckwheat, and potatoes. Source: Food and Agriculture Organization Nepal’s weather varies considerably by altitude but is strongly influenced by the South Asian monsoon. The Terai has a tropical climate with hot summers and mild winters; the Hills are generally subtropical to temperate; and the Mountains have subalpine to alpine climates with long, cold winters. Approximately three-quarters of annual rainfall occurs during the kharif (monsoon season) between June and September (Figure 3). Average annual precipitation ranges from less than 300 millimeters (mm) in the west and localized areas of the northwest (Upper Mustang, Upper Manang, Upper Dolpo, called the rain shadow), to over 4,000 mm in southern Gandaki Province. The rainy season is followed by rabi (winter), between October and March, and then by spring, from March to May. The agricultural calendar revolves around the monsoon. The main season rice crop is planted with the onset of rains in June and harvested in October and November (Figure 3). Wheat and barley are grown during the cooler winter months, while maize is cultivated in both the Hills and Terai, planted around February to April, and harvested between July and August. The July to September period is often considered a lean season for many rural households, as food stocks from the previous harvest decline and employment opportunities may be limited. Poor households opt for seasonal or longer-term labor migration to India and Gulf countries to cope, providing remittance income. In mountain areas, livestock migration and fodder availability follow seasonal patterns, with households moving animals to lower-elevation pastures when fodder scarcity is common in late winter and early spring (December-April). In urban areas, seasonal price fluctuations for vegetables and staples are typically linked to monsoon disruptions. Demographics Source: Nepal Economic Forum; Nepal Living Standards Survey-IV 2022-23, NSO Nepal is a multicultural country with different caste and ethnic groups belonging to the Tibeto-Burman and Indo-Aryan linguistic families. Social organization has historically been shaped by the Hindu four-varna caste system. Access to extension services, markets, agricultural inputs, and coping capacities varies across caste groups. Nepal is a secular country with multiple religious groups. The 2021 census identified 10 different religious groups, with Hindus constituting the greatest proportion of the population (81.2 percent) and Baha'i the smallest (0.002 percent). Northern mountain districts have higher religious diversity compared to Hills, followed by the southern plains. According to a 2021 census, the country's population is 29.16 million, with 51.1 percent female and 48.9 percent male. The adult and elderly population (above 15 years of age) is increasing, and the young population (below 14 years of age) is declining. Nepal has made significant progress in reducing poverty in the last decade. Living standards have improved with greater access to electricity, an improved road network, and shorter travel time to health facilities. Nepal's development gains are distributed unevenly across geography, gender, caste, and ethnic groups. According to the fourth Nepal Living Standards Survey (NLSS-IV) (2022/23), the highest poverty incidence is in Sudurpaschim (34.16 percent), followed by Karnali (26.69 percent) (Figure 4). However, given the population distribution in Nepal, the highest number of poor are concentrated in Madhesh and Lumbini provinces. Domestic and international migration patterns shape Nepal’s demography. Persistent rural-to-urban migration has increased urbanization, with an estimated 66 percent of the population living in urban areas according to the 2021 census. Additionally, emigration has steadily increased since 1990, following the removal of government travel restrictions, with a marked acceleration from 2000 to 2017. As of 2025, over 3.0 million Nepali, mostly males between 15 and 44, were living abroad, mostly in Gulf countries, India, and Malaysia. The Nepali diaspora contributes significantly to the country’s remittances. According to the World Bank, Nepal is among the top remittance-receiving countries globally with remittances accounting for over one-fourth of the country’s GDP in FY 2024. Nepal has historically provided asylum to displaced populations from neighbors, as in 1959 to the Tibetan refugees and in 1990-1991 to the Bhutanese people. According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugee's most recent data from March 2023, 20,000 refugees resided in Nepal. Internal displacement due to natural disasters such as earthquakes, landslides, and floods occurs frequently. Internally displaced populations typically settle temporarily in camps. The highest displacement recorded in the last two decades was in 2015 following an earthquake, where up to 2.8 million Nepali were displaced, and the government undertook a large-scale recovery effort to resettle almost all displaced households under the leadership of the Nepal Reconstruction Authority during its tenure from December 2015 to December 2021. Livelihoods Context Source: WFP Livelihood systems are fundamentally shaped by Nepal’s unique topography and ecological diversity. The primary livelihood activities in rural areas are agriculture, labor migration, remittances, and local wage labor. Smallholder subsistence agriculture, consisting of cropping and livestock rearing, play an important role in rural economy. Remittances (which contributed 26.2 percent of GDP in 2024) and trade also play a critical role in sustaining rural livelihoods. Agriculture is important to the national economy: it contributes around 22 percent of GDP, and over 60 percent of Nepal’s population relies on agriculture to access food and income. Nonetheless, the agriculture sector's contribution has declined in recent years due to a shift toward industry and services, which is also attributed to shrinking land holdings. While the majority of crop production is rainfed, irrigation is also important: an estimated 49.4 percent of land area was irrigated in 2022. The main cereal crops are rice, maize, wheat, millet, and barley. Rice is the most important staple cereal, mostly grown in the fertile plains of Terai and river valleys, but also in the Hills. Maize is the second most important crop, grown in the Terai and Hills for food and animal feed. The major cash crops are oil seeds, sugarcane, potatoes, large cardamom, ginger, tea, coffee, vegetables, and fruits. Livestock such as cattle, buffalo, goats, and poultry play an integral role in farming systems by providing cash income, manure, draft power, milk, and meat. In mountain areas, shorter growing seasons limit crop options, and households often depend more on livestock such as sheep, goats, and yaks. For urban areas, livelihoods are largely market-based, where households primarily meet all their needs through cash income earned from a variety of sources The main sector contributing to urban livelihoods is the services sector, which typically accounts for around 50 to 55 percent of Nepal’s economic output. In terms of food sources, rural households typically rely on a combination of own crop production, livestock (milk and meat products), and market purchases (Figure 5). Rice is the primary staple consumed by the majority of the population, complemented by maize, wheat, barley, and millet. In remote mountain areas, market purchases form a larger share of food consumption due to limited production capacity. Urban households depend almost entirely on purchased food, making them vulnerable to fluctuations in staple prices and income. Source: Nepal Rastra Bank Nepalese households draw on diverse income sources, which vary by urban or rural setting. The Fifth Household Budget Survey conducted by the Nepal Rastra Bank in 2014-2015 found the main income sources countrywide are agriculture (crop and livestock sales), employment (wage labor, salaries, allowances, and pensions), business (small/large business and petty trade), remittances, and rentals (Figure 6). The contributions from agriculture, livestock, and fisheries, as well as remittances, account for a larger share of household income in rural areas than in urban areas. In urban areas, income from wages, allowances and pensions, business income, and rent forms a larger share of income. The survey results underscore the growing importance of diversified, non-agricultural livelihoods alongside the continued significance of migration-related income and remittances. A separate Living Standards survey conducted in 2022 by the National Statistics Office shows that income sources in Nepal have not shifted substantially since 2014, with wage income remaining the “largest single contributor to household income.” A distinctive feature of rural and urban household income in Nepal is the reliance on labor migration and remittances as an important income source. Remittances contribute substantially to household income, with 76.8 percent of households estimated to be receiving remittances in 2022. Labor migrants send remittances back to their families, which is an important source of income and serves as an informal insurance for poor households. Nepal has a significant number of people who migrate to work abroad, predominantly to Gulf countries and India. According to the 2022 Living Standards survey, household expenditure patterns in Nepal reflect high spending on food, often accounting for more than half of total household spending, especially among poorer households. Non-food expenditures include education, health care, agricultural inputs, housing, transport, and debt repayment. Urban households face additional costs related to rent and utilities, increasing their vulnerability to income shocks. Nepal is highly exposed to natural hazards, including weather shocks, which disrupt livelihood activities. Persistent weather shocks, including increasingly erratic rainfall patterns and glacial melt, increase variability in agricultural production. Flooding during the June to September Monsoon regularly impacts the Terai, which can damage growing crops and infrastructure. Landslides are common in the Hills and Mountains, particularly during periods of intense rainfall. If monsoon rains are delayed or insufficient, crop production is negatively affected. The country also experiences seismic activity, with earthquakes posing systemic risks to livelihood activities and infrastructure. Global, regional, and domestic economic shocks, including fluctuations in food and fuel prices or disruptions to international labor markets, can also have significant impacts, particularly given the country’s reliance on remittances and food imports. Households respond to shocks using a range of coping strategies, including increasing labor migration, selling livestock, borrowing money, reducing food consumption or switching to less preferred foods, and drawing down savings. Economic and Markets Context Nepal’s macroeconomic environment is relatively stable but structurally constrained. Stability is underpinned by large remittance inflows, sufficient foreign exchange reserves, and low inflation, while growth is hampered by persistent trade deficits and limited industrial capacity. Economic growth has recovered modestly following the pandemic-related slowdown, with real GDP growth estimated at approximately 4.6 percent in FY 2024/25, up from 3.7 percent in FY 2023/24. The economic structure is dominated by services, which account for roughly 62 percent of GDP, followed by agriculture (25 percent) and industry (approximately 13 percent). Since 2022, economic expansion has remained constrained despite gradual recovery in tourism and domestic demand, due to low productivity in agriculture, limited manufacturing development, and structural reliance on imports for energy, manufactured goods, and food. Remittances are central to Nepal’s macroeconomic stability and monetary framework. Labor migration, primarily to Gulf countries, Malaysia, and India, generates remittances equivalent to more than one-quarter of GDP, with FY 2024/25 inflows reaching 12.6 billion USD, a 16 percent year-over-year increase. The rapid growth of remittances in recent years has provided a critical source of foreign exchange and current account surplus, helping maintain stable foreign current reserves and supporting imports and domestic consumption. At the same time, remittances are closely linked to Nepal’s long-standing fixed exchange rate regime that pegs the Nepali rupee (NPR) to the Indian rupee. The peg has historically provided a nominal anchor for inflation and exchange rate stability by linking India’s economy to Nepal’s economy. However, this arrangement limits Nepal’s independent monetary policy. As a result, domestic interest rates and liquidity conditions tend to track monetary developments in India. For example, the Reserve Bank of India raised its interest rates by nearly 250 basis points in 2022/23 to control inflation. With Nepal’s currency peg in place, this fed into Nepal’s financial system and contributed to higher borrowing costs despite weak domestic demand, highlighting how India’s policy decisions transmit into Nepal’s domestic financial conditions. Under this framework, Nepal’s central bank relies on foreign exchange reserves and remittance inflows to sustain the peg. Consumer price inflation has moderated in recent years, averaging 4 percent in FY 2024/25, and further easing to roughly 2-3 percent by mid FY 2025/26, driven by food price declines and stable non-food inflation. Weak domestic demand has further contained price pressures. The exchange rate regime exposes Nepal’s price dynamics to external shocks transmitted through Indian markets, including fluctuations in food and fuel prices. Nepal maintains a large structural trade deficit driven by imports of fuel, vehicles, machinery, fertilizers, and staple foods. In FY 2024/25, the trade deficit widened by 6 percent from the previous year, exceeding 10.5 billion USD, as imports significantly outpaced export growth. While exports have increased modestly in recent years, Nepal’s export base remains narrow and highly concentrated in regional markets, particularly India. Agricultural exports constitute a significant share of merchandise exports, including tea, cardamom, ginger, lentils, and vegetable oils derived from imported crude palm and soybean oil processed domestically and re-exported to India. Energy supply constraints reinforce these external pressures in Nepal, where biomass still accounts for roughly 65 percent of energy use, while electricity generation is almost entirely based on hydropower. Electricity demand has grown rapidly alongside expanded electrification and improved reliability. In FY 2024/25, domestic electricity consumption increased by 10.7 percent, and per-capita electricity use rose to approximately 465 kilowatt-hours annually as grid access reached roughly 98 percent of the population. Expanding hydropower has allowed Nepal to export seasonal surpluses, yet the country remains dependent on Indian imports during the dry season. Table 1 Production of key staple foods (1000 metric tons [MT]), Nepal Marketing Year* Maize Milled Rice Wheat Barley Millet ConsumptionProductionConsumptionProductionConsumptionProductionConsumptionProductionConsumptionProductionConsumption 2021/223,1063,6503,4174,4122,1452,3543131339339 2022/233,1933,6003,6544,2492,0992,1303131356356 2023/243,1943,5003,8124,0222,0362,20800301301 2024/253,0003,4003,9674,6322,1002,09200330330 2025/263,1003,5003,8004,4502,2002,22500330330 10-year avg2,8983,3273,6744,3772,0732,2232222324324 5-year avg3,1193,5303,7304,3532,1162,2021212331331 Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Nepal’s food supply is primarily shaped by domestic cereal production, particularly rice, maize, and wheat, but remains partially dependent on imports, largely sourced from India. Rice accounts for the largest share of national cereal production, followed by maize and wheat (Table 1). Rice, maize, and wheat yields improved gradually over the past decade due to incremental gains in fertilizer use, access to quality seed, and irrigation coverage, but overall productivity remains low due to structural constraints, including fragmented landholdings and uneven access to quality inputs. Rice production averaged about 3.8 million metric tons (MMT) and increased roughly 16 percent in the past decade, peaking at 4.2 MMT in MY 2024/25 (Figure 7). Since 2015, wheat production averaged nearly 3 MMT, and productivity increased about 12.5 percent, while maize improved more rapidly, rising roughly 26 percent to just above 3 MMT average annual production. Despite gradual productivity gains, domestic cereal production has not kept pace with population growth and rising dietary demand. Cereal import requirements account for 15 percent of national consumption, with rice imports averaging 700,000 MT annually, largely filled through trade with India. Cross-border trade therefore plays a critical role in Nepal’s food supply, closely linking domestic food markets to Indian production conditions and policy decisions. Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture Nepal’s landlocked geography and mountainous terrain drive high transportation costs, particularly for Hill and Mountain regions, and uneven food market integration. Staple foods flow primarily from surplus-producing Terai regions and Indian borders toward urban centers such as Kathmandu Valley and deficit-producing mountain areas. Seasonal road closures, landslides, and limited storage amplify price differences and limit market integration, with transport-related cost differences between Terai and Mountain regions varying 50-100 percent, with known localized price spikes of 20-50 percent during road closures. Informal trade with India, estimated at 30-50 percent of formal flows, also shapes rice prices and supply patterns, especially in the Terai. Market demand and prices historically rise during the July-September lean period as stocks from previous harvests deplete to low levels, followed by the main harvest of maize and rice (September-November), when supplies increase. Government interventions such as fertilizer subsidies, minimum support prices for rice, and strategic reserves modestly stabilize food markets, but their overall scale remains limited relative to national production and consumption, reducing their impact on price formation. Food Security and Nutrition Context Chronic food insecurity in Nepal remains high, despite relative improvements over the past 10 years. Food security conditions are shaped by pronounced agroecological diversity, structural livelihood constraints, and recurrent weather and economic shocks. In particular, geographic disparities in agricultural potential; limited access to land, markets, and services; persistent social inequalities; dependence on rainfed agriculture; and growing reliance on food imports create a context in which households are vulnerable to shocks with reduced coping abilities. Even moderate disruptions to livelihood activities can impact food availability and access, leading to food consumption gaps and acute food insecurity. Populations most at risk of acute food insecurity are those living in the remote highlands, riverbanks, and floodplains, as market access and functionality vary significantly by geography due to Nepal’s challenging terrain and infrastructure limitations. Transport costs are high, and seasonal disruptions (such as floods or landslides) can isolate communities and restrict food supply flows. As a result, food prices and availability vary widely across regions, with remote Hills and Mountains areas facing the greatest constraints to accessing food. These dynamics contribute to significant disparities in diet quality and access to nutritious foods. For example, food consumption is among the poorest in the country in the mountain regions, specifically Karnali, Sudurpaschim, and Madhesh Provinces, reflecting the combined effects of poverty, market access limitations, and high food prices. Acute food insecurity in Nepal typically manifests seasonally during the June to September lean season or following a natural disaster or economic or social shock that disrupts food access, livelihood activities, and/or markets and is typically localized in nature. The 2015/16 border disruption with India, which constrained fuel and food imports, drove sharp price increases and countrywide market shortages. More broadly, fluctuations in international and regional prices, especially for food and fuel, continue to directly affect domestic inflation and household purchasing power, which drove a moderate increase in acute food insecurity. Then following food security was relatively stable and even improved, then food insecurity modestly increased in 2020 through 2023 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and global food and fuel price crisis. An assessment from WFP, found that in 2023 about 15 percent of households were engaging in at least one food-based coping strategy in the last seven days prior to the survey. Nepal has historically faced moderate levels of acute malnutrition. Before 2019, national global acute malnutrition (GAM) measured by weight-for-height z-score (WHZ) and/or edema levels remained in the Serious range (10-14.9 percent, associated with Crisis [IPC Phase 3]) or Alert range (5-9.9 percent, associated with Stressed [IPC Phase 2]). In the past 10 years, the national GAM prevalence have improved markedly: from 12.0 percent (Serious levels) in 2019 to 7.0 percent in 2022, and 6.6 percent in 2025. While comparability across surveys is limited due to differences in timing and methodology, the downward shift in acute malnutrition appears consistent across sex and most geographic areas. The decline in acute malnutrition reflects a combination of expanded prevention and treatment for malnutrition, as well as improvements in the health system through long-term national government policy commitments, including large-scale micronutrient programs. Through these programs, Nepal has scaled up community-based management of acute malnutrition through the Integrated Management of Acute Malnutrition (IMAM) approach, embedding early detection and treatment within routine health services and community outreach. Strong improvements in child health interventions, including high coverage of Vitamin A supplementation, routine immunization and strengthened community health systems, have reduced child illness as a driver of acute malnutrition. Improvements in maternal health and nutrition, hygiene and sanitation, and poverty reduction, supported by multisectoral policies such as the Multi-Sectoral Nutrition Plan, further supported declines in acute malnutrition by addressing underlying causes such as illness, food access, and caring practices. These interventions have contributed to steady declines in acute malnutrition despite ongoing shocks and structural constraints. Continued deterioration remains possible, especially where household diets are limited, markets are disrupted, or illness prevalence is elevated. Rising food prices, seasonal access constraints, and recurrent disease outbreaks may heighten nutritional vulnerability in some geographic areas. While acute malnutrition has declined at a national level, levels of acute malnutrition vary across the country. According to a 2025 national malnutrition survey, province‑level GAM is largely within the Alert (5-9.9 percent) or Acceptable (<5 percent) ranges. Koshi (8.6 percent), Sudurpashchim (8.0 percent), Madhesh (7.4 percent), Lumbini (6.8 percent), and Karnali (5.3 percent) all reported a GAM of Alert in 2025. No province exceeds 10 percent GAM in aggregate; however, localized areas of higher acute malnutrition exist within provinces. Notably, Koshi (rural) had a GAM of 11.3 percent in 2025. Rural areas of Sudurpashchim (8.4 percent) and Madhesh (8.2 percent) also demonstrate elevated acute malnutrition levels compared to their urban counterparts. Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) prevalence ranged from 0.6 to 1.9 percent across the provinces. While improvements have been made, poor complementary feeding practices, limited dietary diversity, and recurrent childhood illness across Nepal nationally continue to contribute to acute malnutrition. The 2024-2025 Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) shows moderate breastfeeding practices, with 69.7 percent of infants under six months exclusively breastfed and 38.4 percent initiating breastfeeding within one hour of birth. Additionally, complementary feeding indicators remain inadequate, with only 51.5 percent of children 6-23 months meeting Minimum Dietary Diversity (MDD), 63.5 percent meeting Minimum Meal Frequency (MMF), and 39.3 percent achieving a Minimum Acceptable Diet (MAD). Child food poverty remains widespread, with nearly half (48.5 percent) of young children receiving foods from four or fewer food groups. These feeding constraints occur alongside recurring infections, with diarrhea affecting 7.8 percent of children, and seasonal limits on food access, especially in rural and mountain regions. Mortality data provide further context but are limited. The burden of infectious disease remains a major contributor to child mortality, with diarrhea, fever, and respiratory infections persisting as common childhood illnesses (Demographic and Health Survey 2022). tfinstuen@fews.net Fri, 06/26/2026 - 20:22 Download the report 8