Food Security and Vulnerability in Jumla, Nepal

Withdrawing, Resisting, Maintaining and Adapting: Food Security and Vulnerability in Jumla, Nepal Kamal Raj Gaire Submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements of the degree of Doctor of Philosophy January 2015 School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences The University of Melbourne Abstract Food security discourse, since the inception of the term in 1974, has shifted from a narrow focus on food supply to a greater consideration of access, entitlements and sustainability. An emphasis on vulnerability has coincided with increased recognition that the causes of food insecurity are the result of a complex interaction between ecological, social, political and economic events and processes. Vulnerability has been used differently within various theoretical traditions and especially in food security literature. Key theoretical perspectives and approaches applied to the concept of food insecurity and vulnerability include: productivism, sustainable livelihoods (Chambers & Conway 1992), entitlements (Sen 1981) and political ecology (Blaikie & Brookfield 1987; Bohle, Downing & Watts 1994; Watts & Bohle 1993). In recent times, there have been attempts to utilise concepts from a social-ecological systems approach in describing vulnerability to food insecurity (for example see Ericksen 2008). In this research study, an entitlements perspective is applied to identify and describe inequalities and how power structures and processes of marginalisation are operating in communities. Ideas from the sustainable livelihoods approach were drawn upon to understand how and why people can or cannot combine resources, and how strategies are adapted to opportunities and to the nature of risks and hazards. Political ecology further enabled an analysis of vulnerability and issues of power at multiple scales. Finally, a social-ecological lens provided an opportunity to examine relationships between society and ecology. Thus, an integrated and differentiated perspective on food security is developed and applied in this study. Understanding the strategies that people employ to respond to multiple risks and hazards is critical to identifying pathways for change towards greater food security. In this research study, people’s explanations of and responses are explored in the context of changes to their livelihoods and the wider social-ecological system in which they are embedded. The integrated vulnerability framework, drawing on a social-ecological systems approach, was applied to structure data collection, analysis and discussion in the food insecure region of Jumla in Nepal. Jumla is a rugged high altitude mountainous landscape in the poorest region of Nepal located in the mid-west. i Livelihoods in Jumla are largely subsistence oriented, made up of small family farms. Society is historically stratified according to caste, livelihoods, gender and place. With the recent construction of a road connecting Jumla to the rest of the country, there is an increasing trend towards integration of local, regional, national and international economies of food and agriculture. Using in-depth interviews, focus groups and historical data, this study examined negotiation processes, decision-making, actions and interactions within social- ecological practices and processes. I began with the lived experiences of people within the context of a multi-scale social-ecological system. I considered coping, adaptation, and vulnerability as defined by farmers, residents, government officials and extension workers in the rural mountains of Jumla. Four distinct narratives and responses emerge from the diverse risks and social-ecological conditions that expose the complexity of coping and adaptation to food insecurity, each with different implications for individual and collective long-term well-being and sustainability. People are variously and sometimes concurrently withdrawing, resisting, maintaining and/or adapting to food insecure situations. These stories reveal the complexity of managing the lived experience of food insecurity. The evidence presented in this research is that Jumla is food insecure but this is so only for some people, in certain places and at certain times. Government policies consider Jumla’s food insecurity as being only a problem of too little production and focus on improving agriculture as ‘the sole solution’ to food insecurity. Food security is also mistakenly understood by many department policies as food preference. It is through understanding the diverse narratives and practices of coping with and adapting to food insecurity that opportunities which resonate more strongly with local social-ecological relations can emerge. These narratives highlight the need for adaptive policy responses and point towards pathways that are likely to contribute to greater food security. A paradigm shift in current food security thinking and practices is required for improving food security as part of a national integrated rural development program with context based implementation practices in local settings like Jumla. This thesis argues for policies and resources that support negotiated, differentiated and diverse coping and adaptation strategies. Specifically, Jumla ii requires differentiated extension support for small farmers, dalits and women farmers. This could encourage diversity in farms, support improving livelihood options off the farm and at a national level—the implementation of a land reform program for fair and just access to land resources. Further institutional changes in this vein could ensure certainty of access to resources. These would contribute to a more sustainable use of ecological resources. Government policy could integrate divergent programs to make explicit possible interconnections among food security, climate change, agriculture, biodiversity, social security, gender, health and education outcomes. The importance of moving beyond a simple interpretation of food insecurity is that real food security reflects a whole of system, integrated landscape approach. iii iv Declaration This is to certify that: • the thesis comprises only my original work towards the PhD, • due acknowledgement has been made in the text to all other material used, • the thesis is fewer than 100 000 words in length, exclusive of tables, maps, and appendices. Kamal Raj Gaire Publications Gaire, K, Beilin, R & Miller, F 2015, 'Withdrawing, resisting, maintaining and adapting: food security and vulnerability in Jumla, Nepal', Regional Environmental Change, Online first, pp. 1-12. doi:10.1007/s10113-014-0724-7. Christensen, J & Gaire, K 2015, 'Understanding sustainable landscapes through the lens of apple growing: cases of Jumla, Nepal and Harcourt, Victoria', Sustainability Science, Online first, pp. 1-10. doi:10.1007/s11625-014-0273-5. Gaire, K, Beilin, R & Miller, F, ‘It’s the policy, stupid? Exploring Nepal’s food security policies and their ability to address changing social-ecological systems’ (under review) v vi Dedication For my father Late Buddhi Sagar Gaire who has been my constant source of inspiration vii viii Acknowledgement There were so many who readily offered their time and support to me during my candidature that I must pass on thanks to all and in the following I personally acknowledge a few. First and foremost, I would like to extend my special thanks to my supervisors: principal supervisor Professor Ruth Beilin and co-supervisor Dr. Fiona Miller for their enormous support, insights and guidance in shaping this work to completion. I am indebted to them for their generous allocation of time to read my numerous drafts and for constant encouragement. They not only provided continuous guidance and advice, administrative and logistical support but also allowed me to develop a personally fulfilling topic of research. I more than appreciate Ruth’s forewarning in February 2011 about efforts, dedication and commitment required during a PhD journey. I would also like to thank Ruth for inviting me and my family to join her during Christmas and other family celebrations; by this you created a homely environment for me and my family. This made it easy for us to live in Australia—far away from and in a far different place to Nepal. Thanks are due to the Australia Awards Program of the Government of Australia for providing the scholarship to pursue my PhD research at the University of Melbourne. I would not have been able to undertake this study without this financial assistance for which I feel incredibly privileged. I would also like to thank the Ministry of Agriculture Development, Government of Nepal for granting me the study leave. I am thankful to the department cartographer, Chandra Jayasuriya, for generously allocating time to help me in producing maps. I am grateful to Dr. Tamara Sysak for helping me in proofreading this thesis, without whom there would be many more typing errors and other flaws. Thank you to all the people of Jumla. Especially to those who participated in interviews and focus group discussions to share your views, experiences, and practices. Government and non-government agencies working at local, regional and national ix levels in Nepal also deserve a special ‘thank you’ for giving me the time and generously sharing the information that made this research possible. I cannot express how grateful I am for their generosity with time and information about experiences and practices that were not always easy to discuss. This research was only possible because of their insights. The extensive and often arduous field work would not have been possible

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