Page 28 Nepalese Journal of Agricultural SciencesSept. 2014, volume 12, ISSN 2091-042X26Climate change, food production and food security in Rupalake wetland areaBP Rajbhandari and S. ShresthaRECAST, Tribhuvan University, Kathmandubinayakprajbhandari@ gail. comABSTRACTA research was conducted in the Rupa Lake area in Lekhnath Municipality of Kaskidistrict, Nepal in 2012-13 with the objective of exploring the impacts of climate change(CC) on crop production and food security (FS) of local people. Twenty percent of thewetland dependent communities constituted the sampled households (HHs). It was foundthat majority of population (87%) of Lake basin was dependent on agriculture for FS andlivelihoods. About 74 percent of households were aware of the effect of CC, and thereforehad adopted different strategies to adapt to its effect. Most of them were adopting mixedcropping; were using short duration crops; organic manure/compost and bio-pesticide.The status of community forest and lake environment has improved in the period of last10 years because of conservation practices initiated by local communities including theRupa Lake Restoration and Fishery Cooperative. There was a year-round FS for 50percent of sampled HHs (it was 57% by HFIAS method), with 22 percent of those HHshaving surplus food. Five percent of HHs had FS for less than three months while 19percent of the HHs had FS for more than six months. Over 90 percent HHs responded toCC variously: i. e in the form of rise in temperature (by 74% of the respondents);unpredictable rainfall (by 77%); shift in rainfall (by 64%); and phonological changes inplants (by 51%). Of the total sampled households (50), 92 percent shared theirexperiences regarding the change and impacts of climatic parameters, wetlandecosystem, agriculture system, FS and livelihoods. Rise in temperature, unpredictablerainfall, shift in rainfall pattern and phenological changes in plants were the indicatorsof CC. Meteorological data supported these observations and showed that during the last30 years average temperature rose by 20 C while fluctuation of annual rainfall hadabrupt pattern with only 5000 mm/year during the year 2005 to 2010 except in the year2007 (6000 mm/year) and 2010 (5800 mm/year)
