Recent trends show that the food insecurity is a critical dimension of human security. The trends and state of food production and access analysed from data collected for the author’s PhD thesis through household surveys, focus group discussions and key informant interviews prove that scarcity of food will escalate psychological fear of people being hungry, threatened with the loss of livelihoods assets and potential dependency, exploitation and conflict and other socio-political unrests. The paper looks at how hunger could be seen as a major non-traditional security threat in future in resource scarce areas of Nepal, namely; Kalilai, Achham and Bajura districts of Nepal.

The current state of food production in the far-western region of Nepal shows that there are 22% marginal cultivators, , only 8% of total households are food self-sufficient and 5% people face hidden hunger at least for a month in a year. Accessibility of subsidized food through Nepal Food Corporation, distributed through the World Food Programme (WFP) aid and market, contribute to fulfil the demands of local people for six months on an average in a year. Courtesy of their situation, seasonal migration from the western villages of Nepal to India is a major supporting source of marginal groups to buy food. However, recent trends of increasing population growth and impacts of climate change in the region may increase further fragmentation of land and the number of landless and marginal cultivator could reach up to 30% by 2030 and 40% by 2050.  Number of self-sufficient household is expected to be reduced simultaneously and people threatened with hunger will rise to 10% in 2030 and 15% by 2050.

However, accessibility to food through market may take over the role of food distribution as further investment in road construction is estimated within the next 10 years. The current scenario of employment opportunities shows that there will be no more additional jobs that will sustain the purchasing power of the local people, which may give rise to the duration of seasonal migration especially to gulf countries leaving their households in the region vulnerable. The current seemingly unstable land rights and social issues in the region may also catalyze hunger issues because of food insecurity. The paper recommends land reforms, climate change adaptive agriculture system, market ration system, and alternative livelihoods opportunities to the marginal groups to increase their food purchasing power to counter the predicted situation in the far-western region of Nepal.