Urban Dietary Shifts vs. Traditional Crops: Socioeconomic Drivers of Millet Decline and Revival Policies in Nepal
Hari Prashad Joshi （ Everest Center for Research and Development Partners, Kathmandu, Nepal ）
Sita Ram Kandel （ Faculty of Environmental Management, Prince of Songkla University, Hat Yai Thailand ）
Hari Prasad Ghimire （ Everest Center for Research and Development Partners, Kathmandu, Nepal ）
https://doi.org/10.37155/2972-4813-gep0303-10简介
The paper seeks to understand the socioeconomic forces that have led to the current eradication of traditional millet production in Nepal in the face of the fast-growing urbanization and changing food habits and also how effective the current policies of revival are. Using mixed-methods research that consists of household surveys in 12 rural districts, policy analysis, and urban consumption data we demonstrate three dominant forces marginalizing millet; (1) dietary globalization to urban diets that favour rice and wheat; (2) dietary stigmatization of the poor man millet crop among emerging middle classes; and (3) labour-intensive production activities that do not suit youth outmigration. Although Nepal has a National Millet Promotion Program in 2023, the effect of supply-side action (e.g. seed-subsidies) does not address essential demand impediments. Ironically, the same ratio (78 percent) of smallholders aforementioned abnormalities indicated that millet occupied less land than it was before 2015, which, in itself, has been loosely compared to the expansion of urban income earnings (r = 0.72, p < 0.01), although on the other hand, 61 per cent of urban dwellers revealed their intentions to pay an extra premium on nutritionally enriched millet product sales, indicating a potentially uncharted $14.2M market potential by 20.
This gap is due to poor market integration, discontinuous value chains, and poor branding of the superfood frame of millet. We contend that policy coherence in three dimensions (economic, behavioural, institutional) is critical to successful revival (e.g. through SME partnerships in the ready-to-eat category; rebranding millet as a climate-smart, modern crop; and aligning the ag, trade, and health ministries with global food-security efforts, including the FAO International Year of Millets). The paper contextualizes the millet path in Nepal as a virtual representation of the Global South issues since urbanization is interfering with the conventional food systems and doles out a plea towards the policymakers with the help of which integration of the millet could take advantage of as an economic resource and a tool of sustainable development, whilst preserving the cultural heritage.
关键字
Urbanization; Dietary shifts; Traditional crop decline; Socioeconomic drivers; Agricultural policy coherence全文
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版权所有 © 2025 Hari Prashad Joshi, Sita Ram Kandel, Hari Prasad Ghimire
出版时间:2025-07-28
本作品采用以下许可协议授权： 知识共享 署名 4.0 国际许可协议
