|
|
Mountain cryosphere provides fresh water and other ecosystem services to half of humanity
. The loss of mountain cryosphere due to global warming is already evident in many parts of the world, which has direct implications to people living in mountain areas and indirect implication to people living downstream of glaciated river basins. Despite the growing concerns, the relationship between cryosphere change and human society has yet to be assessed systematically. A better understanding of how cryosphere change affects human systems and human security would provide much needed support to the planning of global and regional actions to mitigate impacts and facilitate adaptation. This paper synthesizes the current evidence for and potential impacts of cryosphere change on water, energy, food, and the environment in different mountain regions in the world. The analysis reveals that the changes in the cryosphere and the associated environmental change has already impacted people living in high mountain areas and are likely to introduce new challenges for water, energy, and food security, and exacerbate ecosystem and environmental degradation in the future. The effects of cryospheric changes are also likely to extend to downstream river basins where glacier melt contributes significantly to dry season river flows and supports irrigation, fisheries, and navigation, as well as water supply to many big cities. Appropriate adaptive and mitigative measures are needed to prevent risks and uncertainties being further compounde
Read More
|
|
|
The expert consultation, financially supported by BMUB, intended to bring together soil experts from the entire HKH region to forge a common pathway for securing soil functions in the mountains
. Lessons from this consultation will be linked to ICIMOD’s work on mitigation, mountain resilience, and adaptation to climate change. Furthermore, ICIMOD has seized the opportunity to develop its expertise on mountain soils, an issue that is becoming more relevant throughout ICIMOD’s regional member countries
Read More
|
|
|
Changes in climate, associated hazards, local adaptations in agriculture, and socioeconomic factors affecting adaptation were investigated using data from a large survey of 2310 households (HHs) in the Koshi River Basin (KRB), Nepal
. More than 80% of HHs had perceived changes in climate in the 10 years preceding the survey, and 20–40% had perceived increases in the occurrence of droughts, dry spells, floods, and livestock diseases. Around 36–45% of crop-growing HHs perceived a decline in the production of staple crops such as paddy, wheat, maize, and millets, which was mainly attributed to climate change and related hazards. The decline in local food production meant that HH dependence on external sources for food had increased. Only 32% of HHs had taken some form of adaptive actions in agriculture to address these challenges; actions included not planting certain crops, introducing new crops, changing farming practices, not rearing certain livestock species, and investing in irrigation. The factors affecting the likelihood of a household undertaking adaptive actions included literacy of the head of household, household size, size of owned agricultural land, diversification of income sources, and insurance. Based on these findings, the study has suggested some approaches in the KRB which could contribute to building agricultural resilience to climate change
Read More
|
|
|
Local people in the Himalayan region use a wide range of wild and non-cultivated edible plants (WNEPs) for food, spice, medicinal, and cultural purposes
. However, their availability, use, status and contribution to livelihood security are poorly documented, and they have been generally overlooked in recent agro-biodiversity conservation and management programmes. The study aimed to investigate WNEP diversity and current status in a part of the Kailash Sacred Landscape—a transboundary landscape shared by Nepal, India and PR China—in terms of collection, use, management and conservation initiatives
Read More
|
|
|
There is a large number of peer-reviewed publications reporting that a changing climate is one of the biggest challenges humanity will have during the 21st century
. With population growth and the need to significantly increase agricultural production per unit of area during the 21st century, a changing climate will put additional stress on soil resources. Soil and water conservation will be key for the future of humanity. Professional societies in the area of agriculture and soil and water conservation have recognized the importance that soil resources will have for humanity during this century and have made calls for implementation of worldwide soil and water conservation. For example, in 2010 the Soil and Water Conservation Society (SWCS) invited a group of scientists to review the literature about the potential to use conservation practices for climate change adaptation and mitigation. The Delgado et al. (2011) paper was used by the SWCS to develop and adopt a position statement about the importance of using soil and water conservation practices to mitigate and adapt to climate change. The International Soil Conservation Organization (ISCO) invited the lead author to present the paper as a keynote presentation at the ISCO 2013 conference. The European Society of Soil Conservation (ESSC) published a short communication about this paper in one of their newsletters in 2014. The World Association of Soil and Water Conservation (WASWAC) also invited the lead author to present a keynote presentation on this topic at the 2015 WASWAC annual meeting in Nanchang. This paper (the Nanchang Communication) is a summary of the Delgado et al. (2011) paper that was used by the SWCS to develop the SWCS position statement related to soil and water conservation and climate change. The Nanchang Communication (this paper) was used by WASWAC to develop a position statement about the immediate need for implementation of conservation practices for mitigation of and adaptation to climate change to achieve food security in the 21st century. These papers (Delgado et al., 2011, Nanchang Communication), and the SWCS and WASWAC position statements, support the conclusions from the worldwide literature that without implementation of soil and water conservation practices for climate change mitigation and adaptation, the survival of life, including our own species, will be in jeopardy, since soils will be key to meeting the higher demands for food during the 21st century
Read More
|
|
|
Malnutrition remains a serious challenge in the Hindu Kush Himalayan (HKH) region and still affects a large proportion of the population
. The challenges and issues of nutrition security in mountain areas are different tothose in the plains, and need special attention from governments. We examine the status of nutrition security in the mountain areas of the HKH countries and identify the key issues and challenges, and the potential role of Himalayan traditional crops in addressing these challenges. Based on our findings, we suggest an integrated approach towards achieving nutrition security in the mountain areas of the HKH region. The study found that the prevalence of stunting, wasting, and underweight in children under five in some mountain areas such as Meghalaya in India, the western mountains and far-western hills of Nepal, Balochistan province in Pakistan, the eastern region of Afghanistan, and Chin state in Myanmar, is very high compared to the national average in the respective countries. Children and women are affected most. Poor nutrition leaves children underweight, weakened, and susceptible to infection, and ultimately stunted and deprived of cognitive and learning capacity. Any intervention should have a special focus on the first 1,000 days of a child’s life, at the peak of their vulnerability. Women play a significant role in the nutritional outcome of their children and other household members and should be empowered to make favourable decisions that help improve the nutritional status of the family. There are several causes of undernutrition and malnutrition in the HKH region and an integrated approach is needed to tackle the issues. Malnutrition is a multidimensional problem that demands a multisectoral approach, but nutrition interventions often work in isolation and fail to include the agricultural, social, cultural, economic, and public health dimensions. Policies should recognize that nutrition issues are cross-cutting; nutrition needs to be integrated into all development processes and targeted nutrition programmes should be combined with poverty alleviation programmes. The study proposes an integrated framework to improve nutrition in the HKH region effectively. The key elements are as follows; it is hoped that they will stimulate discussion on future action
Read More
|
|
|
This study attempts to understand local people’s perceptions of climate change, its impacts on agriculture and household food security, and local adaptation strategies in the Hindu-Kush Himalayan (HKH) region, using data from 8083 households (HHs) from four river sub-basins (SBs), i
.e. Upper Indus (Pakistan), Eastern Brahmaputra (India), Koshi (Nepal) and Salween and Mekong (China). The majority of households in SBs, in recent years, have perceived that there have been more frequent incidences of floods, landslides, droughts, livestock diseases and crop pests, and have attributed these to climate change. These changes have led to low agricultural production and income, particularly in Eastern Brahmaputra (EB) where a substantial proportion of HHs reported a decline in the production of almost all staple and cash crops, resulting in very low farm income. Consequently, households’ dependency on external food items supplied from plain areas has increased, particularly in the Upper Indus (UI) and EB. After hazards, households face transitory food insecurity owing to damage to their local food systems and livelihood sources, and constrained food supply from other areas. To cope with these, HHs in SBs make changes in their farming practices and livestock management. In EB, 11 % of HHs took on new off-farm activities within the SB and in SM, 23 % of HHs chose out-migration as an adaptation strategy. Lastly, the study proposes policy instruments for attaining sustainable food security, based on agro-ecological potential and opportunities for increasing agricultural resilience and diversity of livelihoods
Read More
|
|
|
Grafton, R. Q.; Mclindin, M.; Hussey, K.; Wyrwoll, P.; Wichelns, D.; Ringler, C.; Garrick, D.; Pittock, J.; Wheeler, S.; Orr, S.; Matthews, N.; Ansink, E.; Aureli, A.; Connell, D.; De Stefano, L.; Dowsley, K.; Farolfi, S.; Hall, J.; Katic, P.; Lankford, B.; Leckie, H.; Mccartney, M.; Pohlner, H.; Ratna, N.; Rubarenzya, M. H.; Sai Raman, S. N.; Wheeler, K.; Williams, J.
We analyse the threats of global environmental change, as they relate to food security
. First, we review three discourses: (i) ‘sustainable intensification’, or the increase of food supplies without compromising food producing inputs, such as soils and water; (ii) the ‘nexus’ that seeks to understand links across food, energy, environment and water systems; and (iii) ‘resilience thinking’ that focuses on how to ensure the critical capacities of food, energy and water systems are maintained in the presence of uncertainties and threats. Second, we build on these discourses to present the causal, risks and options assessment for decision-making process to improve decision-making in the presence of risks. The process provides a structured, but flexible, approach that moves from problem diagnosis to better risk-based decision-making and outcomes by responding to causal risks within and across food, energy, environment and water systems
Read More
|
|
|
|
|
|
One of the main manifestations of climate change will be increased rainfall variability
. How to deal with this in agriculture will be a major societal challenge. In this paper we explore flexibility in land use, through deliberate seasonal adjustments in cropped area, as a specific strategy for coping with rainfall variability. Such adjustments are not incorporated in hydro-meteorological crop models commonly used for food security analyses. Our paper contributes to the literature by making a comprehensive model assessment of inter-annual variability in crop production, including both variations in crop yield and cropped area. The Ganges basin is used as a case study. First, we assessed the contribution of cropped area variability to overall variability in rice and wheat production by applying hierarchical partitioning on time-series of agricultural statistics. We then introduced cropped area as an endogenous decision variable in a hydro-economic optimization model (WaterWise), coupled to a hydrology-vegetation model (LPJmL), and analyzed to what extent its performance in the estimation of inter-annual variability in crop production improved. From the statistics, we found that in the period 1999–2009 seasonal adjustment in cropped area can explain almost 50% of variability in wheat production and 40% of variability in rice production in the Indian part of the Ganges basin. Our improved model was well capable of mimicking existing variability at different spatial aggregation levels, especially for wheat. The value of flexibility, i.e. the foregone costs of choosing not to crop in years when water is scarce, was quantified at 4% of gross margin of wheat in the Indian part of the Ganges basin and as high as 34% of gross margin of wheat in the drought-prone state of Rajasthan. We argue that flexibility in land use is an important coping strategy to rainfall variability in water-stressed regions
Read More
|
email alert
or subscribe to the 
RSS feed.
