Will Nepalis Make Their Own Baby Food?

Much talk of economic independence has been spawned by the trade and transit crisis with India. There are exhortations of using of native wicker-work wastebaskets and dreams of running cars on electricity. Meanwhile, amid the pedestrian and the grandiose, comes a practical aspiration – an effort to make baby food.

Nepal imports the weaning formula Cerelac and Farex from India but markets no formulas of its own. The imports dominate, yet they hardly satisfy the need for such foods. In a typical year, Nepal imports roughly 150 tons of cereal formula, only enough to feed one in 165 newborns. The formulas are expensive, unaffordable for the majority of Nepali mothers, and now more so because of the trade crisis. Cerelac, the instant milk cereal from India, had a pre-crisis cost of about NRs33 per tin; it now costs NRs40.