Enhancing and Diversifying Livelihood Options ICSSR PDF A Final Report On “The Alaknanda Basin (Uttarakhand Himalaya): A Study on Enhancing and Diversifying Livelihood Options in an Ecologically Fragile Mountain Terrain” Under the Scheme of General Fellowship Submitted to Indian Council of Social Science Research Aruna Asaf Ali Marg JNU Institutional Area New Delhi By Vishwambhar Prasad Sati, Ph. D. General Fellow, ICSSR, New Delhi Department of Geography HNB Garhwal University Srinagar Garhwal, Uttarakhand E-mail: [email protected] Vishwambhar Prasad Sati 1 Enhancing and Diversifying Livelihood Options ICSSR PDF ABBREVIATIONS • AEZ- Agri Export Zones • APEDA- Agriculture and Processed food products Development Authority • ARB- Alaknanda River Basin • BDF- Bhararisen Dairy Farm • CDPCUL- Chamoli District Dairy Production Cooperative Union Limited • FAO- Food and Agricultural Organization • FDA- Forest Development Agency • GBPIHED- Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and Development • H and MP- Herbs and Medicinal Plants • HAPPRC- High Altitude Plant Physiology Center • HDR- Human Development Report • HDRI- Herbal Research and Development Institute • HMS- Himalayan Mountain System • ICAR- Indian Council of Agricultural Research • ICIMOD- International Center of Integrated Mountain and Development • ICSSR- Indian Council of Social Science Research LSI- Livelihood Sustainability Index • IDD- Iodine Deficiency Disorder • IMDP- Intensive Mini Dairy Project • JMS- Journal of Mountain Science • MPCA- Medicinal Plant Conservation Area • MRD- Mountain Research and Development • NAGI- National Association of Geographers, India • NAP- National Afforestation Programme • NORAD- Norway Research and Development • NSP- Nauti Sub-Projects • NTFP- Non-Timber Forest Products • PIB- Public Investment Board • PRA- Participatory Rural Appraisal • SC- Scheduled Caste • ST- Scheduled Tribes • TF- Terraced Farmland • ULDB- Uttarakhand Livestock Development Board • UTDB- Uttarakhand Tea Development Board • VFDC- Village Forest Development Committee • VFDC- Valley Flower Development Corporation Vishwambhar Prasad Sati 2 Enhancing and Diversifying Livelihood Options ICSSR PDF GLOSSARY Agriculture: the occupation, business, or science of cultivating the land, producing crops, and raising livestock Agronomy: The science of soil management, land cultivation, and crop production Bugyal: Bugyal is a nomenclature for alpine meadows Cash crops: A crop grown for direct sale rather than personal consumption Danda: Highland forested land Diversification: The provision or development of greater variety Ecology: The study of the relationships and interactions between living organisms and their natural or developed environment Emigration: The act of leaving a native country to live in another country Enhancement: To improve or add to the strength, worth, beauty, or other desirable quality of something Fragile: easy to break, damage, or harm, usually because delicate or brittle Gad and Gadhera: Gad and Gadhera is synonym to stream Gangar: Lowland residential area Immigration: The act of people entering into a new country to settle permanently Khet and Bari: Synonym to agricultural fields Livelihood: Work done to earn a living or whatever provides a source of income Niche: Any recess or hollow, such as in a rock formation Off-season: A time of year when activity or business is at a low level Sectoral: A component of an integrated system such as an economy or a society Vishwambhar Prasad Sati 3 Enhancing and Diversifying Livelihood Options ICSSR PDF EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Enhancing and diversifying livelihood options in the mountain regions need attention in the wake of framing an integral strategy for coping with physical hazards and food insecurity. It must also seek ways to improve livelihood and generate economic growth through which increased security- physical, economic, and social- can be obtained. The populace of the mountain regions is fully depended on the mixed agriculture systems, which include farming of subsistence cereal crops and animal husbandry for their livelihood. Low production and productivity (per ha yield), home consumption of produced materials, and limited access to market characterizes the systems. The potentials to avail sustainability through enhancing and diversifying livelihood options, within the context of vulnerability and fragility of mountain terrain, has largely been untapped by mountain residents. Thus, the phenomenon of poverty, food insecurity, and malnutrition is common. In addition, dependency on forest resource for firewood and fodder and population pressure on the mountain niche is high, which is leading for severe environmental degradation. Most of the mountain areas have not been able to adequate harness their unique resources to improve mountain livelihoods because of inadequate and unfavourable policies towards mountains. Harnessing mountain niches appropriately through better management of natural resources and application of technologies and new methods of production and exchange do generate employment and income opportunities in the mountains. However, the cultivation of off-season vegetables, fruits, medicinal plants, and appropriate use of non-timber based forest products and the other unique resources of the mountains demonstrate their high potential to provide viable bases for households to rise above poverty and subsistence. In mountain areas, livelihood options are often linked to a range of economic activities, products, and productivity of cereal farming, the natural assets of mountains, as well as economic and human assets. Harnessing mountain resources for hydropower and tourism development and for the production of food and non-food products for urban centers and conserving resources to generate valuable environmental services, among others, can create new employment and income opportunities in these areas. Human resource development, on the other hand, is vital for all round development of the mountain regions. The hill farming system is complex and crop production, animal husbandry, and forestry are intricately linked. They simultaneously determine the living standards of the farm families, income, and employment levels, as well as affect their surrounding environment. Forestlands provide fuel wood, fodder, and timber. Croplands provide food, fodder, and crop residue. However, croplands also require manure, which is available from cow dung and litter from forestlands. Thus, livestock connect these land resources by converting fodder into drought power and dung nutrient, in addition to providing food and income to households. Large parts of the basin are still isolated pockets and located in remote areas, which are insulated from market forces. Transport network and communication facilities have not reached many parts of the basin. Movement of the people and farm products to urban centers is difficult. Tourism can play an important role in some the picturesque areas of the basin. Development of educational facilities is a major aspect, which will surely lead a way for overall development. Similarly, installation of micro-hydro power projects will provide power for ropeways, which are very useful to cope with transportation problems, particularly with road transportation. It is major assumption of this study that enhancing and diversifying livelihood options may increase the food security among the households. Vishwambhar Prasad Sati 4 Enhancing and Diversifying Livelihood Options ICSSR PDF Global changes can be noticed everywhere in mountain regions. Population increased manifolds. The changes in farming systems have been observed apparently. The cereal crop farming was not enough to meet the increasing food demands resulted in change in cultivation from millets to paddy and wheat. During the past, paddy and wheat was rarely sown but now it is very common food. It was observed that cultivation of wheat and paddy has increased production and food security as the people became self-reliant. Even today, a large proportion of sown area is devoted for paddy and wheat crops. The reality of climate change, particularly in the mountain regions, is required an appraisal of climate data for a century or more. Currently, the perception of all groups of society towards the impact of climate change in mountain regions is parallel. The areas where intensive cultivation of apple fruit was carried out during the past are no more for its cultivation. During the 1980s and 90s, a large-scale cultivation of fruits and off-season vegetables was carried out. The production of potato and onion tremendously got a momentum but it was reduced considerably and currently more land is devoted to paddy and wheat. The increasing trend of cultivating paddy and wheat shows its importance in cropping pattern. It does not need market because it is grown for self-reliant. Cash crops need market and other necessary facilities, which is seldom available in the region. Developmental intervention through government agencies needs a considerable policy framework. Crops diversity needs conserved but at the same time a considerable proportion of cultivable land has to be devoted for case crops. Both situations are favourable for sustainable livelihood. For the centuries, the local people are practicing different systems of cultivation in this hilly region as trial and error. No doubt, sustainability in livelihood has been achieved to a certain extend but hard working nature, particularly of women is still prevailed. In