An Assessment of Food Availability at Farm Households of Different Hill Altitudes in Kumaun Hills of Uttarakhand

This study has assessed the food availability to farm households in the Kumaun hills of Uttarakhand based on the collected data from 90 sample farm households, selected through stratified random sampling from low, mid and high hill altitudes for the agriculture year 2014–15. The recommended annual food intake (RAFI) was calculated and compared with food production and consumption levels to assess the food availability to these households. In the low hills, according to RAFI, the consumption of cereals and pulses was sufficient but milk and vegetables was insufficient. In the mid hills and high hills, the cereals production was lower but consumption was higher than RAFI. In the study area on overall basis, the production of cereals and pulses was lower than their consumption, but was higher than the RAFI. The consumption of edible oil, sugar and meat was higher than their RAFI and these were bought from the market. The production as well consumption of vegetables was found less than the recommend level; therefore, awareness generation is needed in the hills to increase their production and consumption.