The European Union is providing a grant assistance of Euros 1,047,000 (around NPR 100.15 million)  to allow the World Food Programme (WFP) to transfer its food security phase classification monitoring system to the Government of Nepal and to strengthen the capacity of the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MoAC) to monitor and analyse food security in the country.

Bishnu Prasad Aryal, Joint Secretary at the Ministry  of Agriculture of the Nepal Government and Nicolas Oberlin, WFP Deputy Country Director signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) at the Ministry Monday for executing the aforementioned tasks.

Nathu Prasad Chaudhary, Secretary at the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperative, and Lluis Navarro, Head of Operations, European Union Delegation to Nepal were also present on the occasion.

The assistance being provided is part of a larger EUR 9 M intervention funded by the European Union and implemented by WFP in seven food insecure districts in the Mid- and Far-West.

"The EU is glad to assist WFP and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives to develop an effective food monitoring mechanism since improving the food security situation has been one of the prioritized areas of EU cooperation in Nepal," Navarro said.

WFP Deputy Director, Oberlin thanked the EU for the support under the European Union Food Facility (EUFF) project and hoped for continued support in the days ahead.

The project began on the 1st of May 2009 and will end on 31st August 2011. Some 50,980 most vulnerable households in the target districts reaching up to 285,000 beneficiaries are expected to reap the benefits of the project.

According to press release of Delegation of European Union in Nepal, The European Union (EU) announced a package of one billion Euros for the 'Food Facility' in 2008. The announcement came in the wake of rising food prices and the pressing need to make rapid responses to growing food scarcity in 50 countries including Nepal. Out of this total sum, 23.5 million Euros (2.7 billion rupees) have been earmarked for Nepal to run projects in the eastern, central, mid-western and far-western regions.