Studies Flag Food Insecurity As A Threat In The Himalayas

In the tallest mountain ranges in the world, researchers have documented at least 30 different ways in which farmers and residents are adapting to food insecurity driven by climate change. Multiple studies have confirmed that the accessibility, availability, and stability of food sources in the Himalayas are becoming increasingly precarious as global mean surface temperatures rise.

A review of existing research on food security in the Himalayas found that climate change led to reductions in food productivity and quality. It also found that climate change impacted food inflation, livestock, and changed dietary habits. “Most research on food security has focused on agriculture and crop productivity, but there hasn’t been a comprehensive, holistic review of every dimension affecting food security, including access and nutrition, which is what this paper aimed to capture,” explained, Deepen Chettri, lead author of the review paper and a researcher at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur.

Around 210 million people reside in the Himalayas, which stretch across India, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan and China. Around a third of the population living in the broader Hindu Kush Himalayan ranges are food insecure, and half are suffering from malnutrition, with women and children worst impacted. “Since the 1990s, we’ve seen a shift away from traditional approaches to agriculture, which hosted a variety of cropping systems, to a more narrow cropping system with less diverse crops, which has contributed to food insecurity and malnutrition,” said Abid Hussain, a senior economist and food systems specialist at the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD). “Apart from climate change, development of the region has also led to the drying up of springs and streams which are a significant source of water for irrigation and agriculture.”

The Himalayas are one of the most vulnerable landscapes on earth to the impacts of climate change and urban development. If efforts to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels succeed, it will still lead to an overshoot of an additional 0.3 degrees, reaching at least 1.8 degrees in the Himalayas, which holds the world’s third largest amount of glaciers and snow.

Reduced food productivity

According to the latest reports by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the High Mountains of Asia have experienced a reduction in snow cover and thinning of glaciers. Glacier mass and snow cover are likely to retreat further with accelerated levels of global warming, the IPCC says.

The review paper, which looks at 55 English-language studies conducted between 2000 and 2023, captures these impacts on food. The review systematically analysed the findings of these studies on food availability (through crop production system, livestock, infrastructure for food supply and food-based non-timber forest produce), food accessibility (income, price, physical access), food utilisation (food safety, water safety, health) and food stability (extreme events, migration, conflicts).

The paper also reviewed the adaptation strategies documented in the 55 studies over the region, finding that 30 different techniques have emerged to cope with food stress.

Close to 80% of studies documented reductions in food productivity of crops like rice, maize, wheat and millets, while 48% indicated increasing crop damage due to pests, diseases, and invasive plants. “Changes in climatic variables, especially temperature rise, facilitated the emergence of new types of weeds and invasive plants in the region, affecting productivity and disturbing the whole crop production ecosystem,” says the review paper. Around 15% of studies also documented reduced productivity of livestock. Heat stress among local breeds of cows and yaks, and crossbreeds of yaks and goats, was identified as a major factor behind the reduced productivity.

Disruptions to food stability in the region come from forced migration (reported in 27% of studies), human-animal conflicts (reported in 15% of studies), and changes in dietary habits due to low agricultural output, income irregularity, and price volatility, which “caused a shift from traditional dietary consumption to low-cost market-based consumption,” (reported in 17% of studies).

“The changes in livelihood have significantly reduced purchasing power due to less profitability and availability of livelihood options. This is further worsened by the challenges imposed by the increasing frequency of climate extremes, destroying houses, properties, farm infrastructure, and other physical and natural capital, compelling households to allocate additional financial resources to repairs, often reducing the food budget,” the review paper says.

Urbanisation, development, and changing socio-economic circumstances in the Himalayas have also helped bolster preferences for mainstream foods and crops which are not as nutritious, said Hussain. In the past, buckwheat, barley, local beans and sorghum were all commonly grown but have been slowly replaced by popular food items like rice, maize and potato. “Today, people think traditional crops are poor man’s food,” he said.

Extreme weather events that frequently damage agricultural productivity have helped accelerate the preference for mainstream varieties in the last 10 to 15 years, Hussain added. “These crops have a higher market value and can give higher quantities in terms of yield, which can tide over a crisis,” he explained.

Coping with impacts

While research has found how climate change is upending food security, several studies have also documented what measures communities are adopting to cope with these impacts.

Farmers are increasingly relying upon agroforestry, around 17% of studies found, as well as employing new irrigation techniques like using irrigation tanks, sprinklers, pipelines, and rainwater harvesting. Some households also shifted to more climate-resistant livestock breeds to sustain adequate livestock productivity. The review paper also demonstrates different approaches to address the same problem.

Some studies documented changes in diet to cheaper and more readily available food items “in response to climate-induced price hikes,” while others found that “farmers had been slowly moving towards cultivating traditional crops, which have higher nutritional values and are much safer from toxins than market food,” the review paper states.

Diversifying income sources and off-farm activities, like engaging in handicrafts or working in construction and transportation, were also adaptation strategies documented in the studies. “We have presented the different methods of adaptation that research so far has documented, but which of these adaptation strategies yields benefits needs to be studied further,” said Chhetri.

According to Hussain, it’s important to identify maladaptive practices, like the move away from traditional cropping methods or the use of lift irrigation pumps, and address them quickly. “The situation of food security in the Himalayas is very dynamic, and an adaptation method that works today may not work tomorrow. It’s important to keep monitoring the situation to see which method brings the most benefit in the long term,” he said, adding, “We have to go beyond agriculture and address food security from the perspectives of migration, social and gender inequalities, climate change and human-wildlife conflict. All these things need to be addressed.”

(Published under Creative Commons from Mongabay-India. Read the original article here)