TY - JOUR
T1 - Food insecurity and compound environmental shocks in Nepal
T2 - Implications for a changing climate
AU - Randell, Heather
AU - Jiang, Chengsheng
AU - Liang, Xin Zhong
AU - Murtugudde, Raghu
AU - Sapkota, Amir
N1 - Funding Information:
The authors thank the two anonymous reviewers for their valuable feedback. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 2019 annual meeting of the Population Association of America in Austin, TX, where the authors received constructive feedback from Raya Muttarak. Heather Randell’s postdoctoral fellowship was supported by the University of Maryland School of Public Health. Climate data used in this study was supported through the US National Science Foundation Innovations at the Nexus of Food, Energy, and Water Systems (grant number EAR-1639327) to Xin-Zhong Liang. Amir Sapkota was a Fulbright Senior Scholar to Nepal. We recognize infrastructure funding from the Pennsylvania State University Population Research Institute (5P2CHD041025-17) and also acknowledge support from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture Multistate Research Project #PEN04623 (Accession #1013257) titled “Social, Economic and Environmental Causes and Consequences of Demographic Change in Rural America”.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021 Elsevier Ltd
PY - 2021/9
Y1 - 2021/9
N2 - Food insecurity is a key global health challenge that is likely to be exacerbated by climate change. Though climate change is associated with an increased frequency of extreme weather events, little is known about how multiple environmental shocks in close succession interact to impact household health and well-being. In this paper, we assess how earthquake exposure followed by monsoon rainfall anomalies affect food insecurity in Nepal. We link food security data from the 2016 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey to data on shaking intensity during the 2015 Gorkha earthquake and rainfall anomalies during the 2015 monsoon season. We then exploit spatial variation in exposure to the earthquake and monsoon rainfall anomalies to isolate their independent and compound effects. We find that earthquake exposure alone was not associated with an increased likelihood of food insecurity, likely due in part to effective food aid distribution. However, the effects of rainfall anomalies differed by severity of earthquake exposure. Among households minimally impacted by the earthquake, low rainfall was associated with increased food insecurity, likely due to lower agricultural productivity in drought conditions. Among households that experienced at least moderate shaking, greater rainfall was positively associated with food insecurity, particularly in steep, mountainous areas. In these locations, rainfall events disproportionately increased landslides, which damaged roads, disrupted distribution of food aid, and destroyed agricultural land and assets. Additional research on the social impacts of compound environmental shocks is needed to inform adaptation strategies that work to improve well-being in the face of climate change.
AB - Food insecurity is a key global health challenge that is likely to be exacerbated by climate change. Though climate change is associated with an increased frequency of extreme weather events, little is known about how multiple environmental shocks in close succession interact to impact household health and well-being. In this paper, we assess how earthquake exposure followed by monsoon rainfall anomalies affect food insecurity in Nepal. We link food security data from the 2016 Nepal Demographic and Health Survey to data on shaking intensity during the 2015 Gorkha earthquake and rainfall anomalies during the 2015 monsoon season. We then exploit spatial variation in exposure to the earthquake and monsoon rainfall anomalies to isolate their independent and compound effects. We find that earthquake exposure alone was not associated with an increased likelihood of food insecurity, likely due in part to effective food aid distribution. However, the effects of rainfall anomalies differed by severity of earthquake exposure. Among households minimally impacted by the earthquake, low rainfall was associated with increased food insecurity, likely due to lower agricultural productivity in drought conditions. Among households that experienced at least moderate shaking, greater rainfall was positively associated with food insecurity, particularly in steep, mountainous areas. In these locations, rainfall events disproportionately increased landslides, which damaged roads, disrupted distribution of food aid, and destroyed agricultural land and assets. Additional research on the social impacts of compound environmental shocks is needed to inform adaptation strategies that work to improve well-being in the face of climate change.
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U2 - 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105511
DO - 10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105511
M3 - Article
C2 - 34012190
AN - SCOPUS:85105247801
VL - 145
JO - World Development
JF - World Development
SN - 1873-5991
M1 - 105511
ER -