Title : Cultivating resilience: The synergy of farmers and nature in Himalayan agriculture
Abstract:
The Himalayan Region, with its awe-inspiring landscapes embracing extreme biodiversity and diverse ecological niches has nurtured unique agricultural practices that showcase an exceptional interplay between farmers and nature. Himalayan farming communities have thrived for centuries despite many challenges posed by marginality, fragility, and high degree of inaccessibility in mountain areas, in addition to extreme climates, and complex environmental dynamics.
This study examines the profound significance of indigenous knowledge and traditional farming practices that have been consciously preserved and transmitted across generations. These practices serve as vital adaptive strategies that enable farmers to tackle adverse conditions, maintain crop diversity, and manage natural resources efficiently.
By integrating diverse natural resources, traditional wisdom, informal experimentation, and innovations, Himalayan farmers have established sustainable agroecosystems that serve as model for resilience amidst climate change and other physical and biotic pressures. Climate change remains a prominent concern in the Himalayan Region often referred to as Earth’s Third Pole. Impacts of climate change on precipitation patterns, temperature regimes, production performance, etc. pose challenges to Himalayan agriculture and highlight the resilience demonstrated by farmers who have devised methods to cope with these fluctuations while safeguarding their traditional farming systems.
One of the mountain agriculture’s key features reveals farmers’ harnessing symbiotic relationships between biodiversity conservation and agricultural sustainability that contributes to fostering a healthy ecosystem that enhances resilience against environmental stressors. By empowering mountain farmers, promoting gender equality, and recognizing traditional ecological knowledge of the farmers, we can further contribute to enhance food security, food sovereignty, and ecological security of mountain farmers in addition to cultivating resilience in mountain agroecosystems.
Keywords: Agroecosystems, biodiversity, Himalayan agriculture, resilience, sustainability
Audience Take Away Notes:
- Exposure to the Himalayan unique agricultural systems would help the audience to replicate mountain experiences in other regions.
- This is the research that the participants may like to include in their research programs and teaching.
- Farming system-based, biodiversity-centric, resilience-cultivating, and sustainability-oriented agriculture, as projected through this research, would phenomenally help in evolving climate-smart agricultural systems.
