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Himalayan regions face persistent challenges due to geological instability, ecological fragility, and complex topography. Further, the region has faced long-term marginalization due to its remoteness. In addition to these challenges, it is identified to be a hotspot of global climate change. The communities in the region are disproportionately vulnerable to the emerging problems from climatic stressors. Among these, the agricultural communities are the most sensitive due to high (often absolute) dependence on rainfall, unavailability of irrigation facilities, and marginal landholdings. As impacts of climate change are predicted to worsen in the near future, widespread risk on food security and livelihoods of these communities will occur (Rasul, 2010). Therefore, there is a pressing need to reduce vulnerability and enhance the adaptive capacity of these communities to support effective adaptation responses. However, the vulnerability to climate change is spatially and socio-economically differentiated. It is mediated through processes that operate at multilevels, thereby generating differential levels of vulnerability and adaptation needs.
Against this backdrop, the thesis places agriculture communities at the center with an aim to identify locations of high vulnerability and explain the differential vulnerability of farmers to climate change. The thesis has three objectives: to identify the hotspots of inherent vulnerability of agriculture communities; to understand the profile of agricultural communities in the identified vulnerability hotspots; and to analyze how farmer diversity and adaptation to climate change is addressed within agriculture and farmer-centric policies. The thesis compromises of eight chapters based on the five research papers published and two submitted by the author during the last 4 years in peer-reviewed journals. Each of the chapter list the bibliographical details of these publications on which the chapter is based.
The study is carried out in the Uttarakhand state of Indian Western Himalaya. The study adopts a multi-level approach and mainly uses three broad methods: indicator-based assessment, statistical based typology, and content analysis. At the first level, a comprehensive indicator-based social and biophysical vulnerability assessment was done which guided selection of vulnerability hotspots, where a second level community profiling was done to develop the typology of farmers in order to characterize the communities living in the vulnerable hotspots, and then to capture their heterogeneity in climate change perception and adaptive responses. Finally, national and state-level policies were reviewed to understand the gaps in effective and inclusive adaptation planning in the region.
Overall, the state observes a strongly negative skewed distribution of inherent vulnerability, indicative of the high social and biophysical constraints that the agriculture communities of Uttarakhand currently face. The identified hotspots of vulnerability are mainly clustered in the middle altitudinal zone. A considerable amount of diversity exists within the selected villages in the identified hotspots. A total of five farmer types were identified in the region, characterized on the basis of structural (resource endowment) and functional (livelihood and cropping strategies) diversity. Multiple factors such as landholding, land-labor ratio, household size, farming preferences (food/cash crop), alternate source of income, livestock size, and presence of market determined the farmer types. Heterogeneity in structural and functional attributes lead to differential perception and generate diversified adaptation responses to climatic stressors. Adoption rates of different strategies differ across farmer types. Further, content analysis of policy documents reveals that a holistic understanding of ‘who a farmer’ is missing while addressing the climate change issues, and suggested adaptation mechanism are mostly production oriented to increase crop productivity which disregard the nested role of factors like differential resource endowment and farmer identity.
Findings of this thesis create a platform for discussions around adaptation planning in the Himalayan region. The thesis highlights the usage of a multi-level integrated approach to capture spatial diversity of vulnerability and social diversity in adaptation responses. Based on the evidences provided in the thesis it argues that it is necessary for policies to be nuanced at local scales to address diversity within agricultural communities. Blanket approaches to climate change adaptation and agricultural policies which do not take into account the heterogeneity within the farmers, differential impacts of climate change, and their diversified adaptation responses are unlikely to be successful and may reinforce the existing inequalities in the region.
Key Words: Climate change, Vulnerability, Adaptation, agriculture communities, farmer diversity, Uttarakhand, Himalaya.
