Nepalese farmers struggle after earthquakes

Arjun Parajuli, a 67-year-old farmer from Kabhre, in northeastern Nepal, just survived one of the most challenging monsoons of his life. After working as a cycle rickshaw driver for 50 years in Kathmandu, earlier this year he poured his life savings into his family farm. A day later, everything was gone. The monsoons washed it all away. “Most people in my village lost their homes, storage and irrigation systems,” he said. The monsoon season in Nepal typically lasts from June to September, and this year it came after a devastating earthquake and several aftershocks in April killed more than 8,000 people and destroyed thousands of farms in the eastern part of the country. More than a third of Nepal’s population works in the agricultural sector, and before the rains, “a lot of farmers on the top of the hills abandoned their farms,” Parajuli said. In the wake of these disasters, the country has faced a looming food crisis as farmers have struggled to get back on their feet. http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2015/10/8/nepals-farmers-struggle-after-natural-disasters.html