Food security & livelihoods golam rasul, senior economist
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International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development Kathmandu, Nepal Food Security and Sustainable Livelihoods in the Hindu Kush Himalayan Region International Workshop on Adaptations and Resilience of Local Communities in the HKH, Hamburg, Germany 9 th -11 th October, 2011 Golam Rasul, Theme Leader, Livelihoods
description
Food Security in the Hindu Kush-Himalaya Region Long term food security is a broad development issue. Food security cannot be achieved without enhancing livelihood options, and the livelihoods of poor communities cannot be improved unless productive resources, such as water, land, forest, rangeland, biodiversity, and the natural environment are conserved and their access and optimal utilization are ensured. From the mountain perspective it is, therefore, necessary to take a holistic approach. A sustainable strategy for improving the food security calls for a package of measures including strengthening up-stream down-stream relationships: a. Enhancing income through mountain niche-based products and resource endowments as well as enhancing livelihood options by promoting non-farm employment opportunities through rural enterprise development, mountain tourism, and higher economic value addition in marketable products; b. Reducing risks and vulnerabilities of loss of assets, crops, and lives from natural hazards through facilitating early warning systems and establishing data and information sharing as the HKH region is more prone to natural hazards; c. Developing options, ideas, and institutional arrangements to protect and develop watershed resources such as land, forest, water, and biodiversity, thereby sustaining and enhancing ecosystem services, which are not only the primary basis of production but that are also sources of economic (medicinal and aromatic plants, raw materials for rural enterprises, uncultivated foods, water for irrigation), environmental (regulating climate), and social well-being through supporting several self-provisioning livelihood systems. d. Facilitating a more productive use of remittances, as mountain areas have become part of a large remittance economy, through policy and knowledge inputs that will improve food security by stimulating rural investment and employment opportunities. e. Developing options, methodologies, and institutional mechanisms to compensate mountain communities for the vital environmental services whom they are the custodians of, such as water, flood control, biodiversity conservation, climate regulation, dry season water flow, as well as other tangible and intangible environmental services. f. Facilitating adaptation and building resilience to achieving long-term food security through providing relevant data, information and knowledge generated through ICIMOD and its partner’s research on climate change, glacier melting, temperature change, air pollution including ‘brown cloud’ haze . Because the agricultural productivity of the HKH region and adjacent plains of the eight regional member countries is heavily dependent on the availability of dry season water from the Himalayan glaciers, which have been shrinking due to global warming and poses a serious threat to long-term food production sustainability of the entire region.
Transcript of Food security & livelihoods golam rasul, senior economist
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development
Kathmandu, Nepal
Food Security and Sustainable
Livelihoods in the Hindu Kush
Himalayan Region
International Workshop on Adaptations and Resilience of
Local Communities in the HKH, Hamburg, Germany
9th-11th October, 2011
Golam Rasul, Theme Leader, Livelihoods
Outline
1. Background
2. Emerging issues &
challenges
3. Potentials &
Opportunities
4. Pathways towards a
sustainable livelihoods &
food security
Background
Mountain Livelihoods is Complex
& Diverse
Livelihood
Systems
Forest, range &
pasture & watershed
Livestock
Field crops
Off-farm income
Nutrients
Conservation
Protection
Food,
cash
Fuel wood, fodder, timber
Meat, woo
l, milk
cash and
service
Cash, food security
Animal power Nutrient
Fodder, shed
Inputs Inputs
Interdependencies and inter-linkages of Livelihood systems and water
Mountain Livelihoods is Complex
& Diverse
Farm household
Food security
Forest, range & pasture &
watershed
Livestock
Field crops
Crops, horticul
ture, agro-
forestry
Off-farm income
Migration, wage
labor, trade, etc
Nutrients
Conservation
Protection
Food, cas
h
Fuel wood, fodder, timber
Meat, woo
l, milk
cash &
service
Cash income
Animal power Nutrient
Fodder, shed
Inputs Inputs
Interdependencies and inter-linkages of Livelihood systems and water
Background
• Land use: 63% pasture, 21%
forest, 11% protected area only 5%
agricultural land
• Livelihoods- HH Income - 48% from
farm, 28% off-farm, 11%
remittances, 13% from other sources
(FAO, 2011)
• Agriculture largely subsistence- Low
irrigation coverage 4.4 % in
Nepal, 9% in India
• 30 million people depends on
livestock & pasture in the HKH
region
Food Security • 65 % population food insecure
• - Food deficiency- 65 to 80 % households food
deficient - 5 to 6 months
• In Nepal: per-capita food deficit is 37 kg in
mountain, 23 kg in hills and have a surplus of 24
kg in Terai of Nepal (FAO, 2011)
• Poor Access to safe drinking water – e.g., only
37% households in Manipur of India has the
access to clean drinking water.
Energy Security
• Rural people largely depends on
firewood for cooking
• 64.8 % households at Himalayan
region of India depends on
firewood – in Uttarkhand it is
86.3%.
• In certain districts in Nepal, over 90
% households use firewood for
cooking
•
Poverty incidence
Poverty incidence
• Pakistan 38 out of 120
districts are considered
poor. Majority of these
districts fall in
Baluchistan & NWFP
& almost all districts in
the FATA (Kaspersma;
2007).
States % Relative (India
average = 100)
Arunachal
Pradesh
33.47 128
Assam 36.09 138
Manipur 28.54 110
Meghalaya 33.87 130
Mizoram 19.47 75
Nagaland 32.67 126
Sikkim 36.56 140
Tripura 34.44 132
Uttaranchal 47.42 182
All India
average
26.1 100
Population below poverty line in selected hill
states in India
Purpose
• Essential question is - how to improve
livelihoods, reduce poverty, increase food
security
• Understand
– Emerging issues & challenges- driving factors
– Options and opportunities
– Suggest strategies to improve livelihoods & food
security
2. Emerging Issues and Challenges
– Socio-economic
– Climatic
Key Trends
• Increased integration to national, regional &
global markets
• Agribusiness, contact farming emerging in
HKH region
• Increased outmigration: women are taking
greater role in agriculture and other
economic activities
Fragility
Vulnerability
Marginality
InaccessibilityAdaptation mechanism
Diversity
Niches
Mountain specificities
Livelihoods & Food Security in a changing context
• Subsistence system => commercial• Increase in efficiency & productivity• High value & Niche products, Non-farm• Increased mobility-migration, remittances
• Human poverty• Livelihood insecurity• Food insecurity• Gender & social inequity
Emerging issues: Socio-economic
• Growing inequality, rural-urban, mountain-lowland
• Agricultural decline-High Energy Price, increased fuel
prices, fertilizers, pesticides
• Outmigration- feminization of agriculture, shortage of
agricultural labor, the abandonment of agricultural land
• Feminization of agriculture, additional work load to
women, children
• Low investment- 80% of remittances goes consumption, only
2% capital formation
• Policies, institutions, technologies insensitive to mountain
contexts
Emerging issues: Socio-economic
• HKH region home to ethnic minorities, scheduled
caste, tribal population which are more vulnerable
• Growing environmental refugees, social
unrest, violence > Human Security – free from
want, free from fear
• Social unrest -Poverty, marginality & economic
deprivation have been a major source of
unrest, uprising, even terrorism in hills &
mountains of HKH Region
Emerging Issues: Climatic
• Climate change > reduced water availability in dry
season for agriculture, horticulture , livestock raising
• The duration of average rainy days has reduced from
72 days to 58 days & quantity has reduced from 132
cm to 102 cm during 1990 to 2010 in Indian mountain
(Tiwari & Joshi, 2012)
• Expected to decrease agricultural productivity 30%
(Tiwari & Joshi, 2012)
• Declining Productivity, reducing profitability- shifting
cropping patterns
Emerging Issues: Climatic
• CC Exacerbated the environmental hazards- land slides, flooding, …
• Affected the livelihood of vast majority of rural people living in the region & downstream
• Human Settlements on the bank of glaciated rivers has become UNSAFE
• Growing risks & uncertainties –
• Potentials and Opportunities
–Farm-based
–Non-farmbased
Potential & Opportunities: Farm-
based
• Comparative advantages on several products & services because of mountain Niche & Diversity
• Great potential for development of organic agriculture, horticulture, forest, pasture, livestock, hydroelectricity, herbs, medicinal plants, spices,
• Collective action- institutional innovations
Trends in Agriculture in HKH Region
• Transition from Subsistence to cash
cropping: Horticulture, NTFPs, medicinal
plants, potato, zinger, agroforestry, veget
ables, spices, nuts,…
Potato has
emerged as
important cash
crop in Bhutan &
Nepal in
mountain farmers
seed potato crop
Potato field in Bhutan Cardamom in India
Revolution in horticulture in the HKH Region
Apple in India & PakistanPineapple in Bangladesh
Grapes, Apricots in Afghanistan 0
2
4
6
8
10
12
Assam Himachal Pradesh Jammu &Kashmir All India
1990-91
2000-01
2005-06
Increase % of area under horticulture in India
Horticulture crops are 3 times
more profitable (Rs.48,164/ha
than the field crops
(Rs.16,619/ha) [Sikkim, India]
Trends in Agriculture in HKH Region
Trends in Agriculture in HKH Region
• Diversification of high value cash crops:
mushroom, Matsutake farming and Cordyceps
collection in hills & mountains Bhutan & Nepal
MatsutakeMushroom Medicinal plants
Beekeeping
Non-farm sector
• Tourism is growing - In Nepal, tourism contribute 3.5 %
GDP, generated employment for 0.4 million
• Non-farm based rural employment is emerging slowly
• Climate Service- economic benefits through ecosystem
services particularly carbon sequestration & biodiversity
conservation.
• Better land management- increase carbon sinks in soil
organic matter, above-ground biomass and avoiding
carbon emissions through conservation tillage
Strategies
• Diversifying income sources through
off-farm & nonfarm activities
• Promotion of non-farm employment &
increased- value addition to mountain
niche products
• Disaster preparedness- early warning
systems, increased natural
protection, insurance schemes
• Dissemination of locationally suitable
technologies
Strategies
• Mountain specific policies, strategies
• Improve access and linkage to markets
• Introduce climate change adaptation
measures
• Improve policy and institutional support
• Institutional mechanism for compensating for
environmental services they generate through
environmental friendly agricultural practices
