Netra Chhetri

Adapting agriculture to climate change

The strong trends in climate change already evident, the likelihood of further changes occurring, and the increasing scale of potential climate impacts give urgency to addressing agricultural adaptation more coherently. There are many potential adaptation options available for marginal change of existing agricultural systems, often variations of existing climate risk management. We show that implementation of these options is likely to have substantial benefits under moderate climate change for some cropping systems. However, there are limits to their effectiveness under more severe climate changes. Hence, more systemic changes in resource allocation need to be considered, such as targeted diversification of production systems and livelihoods. We argue that achieving increased adaptation action will necessitate integration of climate change-related issues with other risk factors, such as climate variability and market risk, and with other policy domains, such as sustainable development. Dealing with the many barriers to effective adaptation will require a comprehensive and dynamic policy approach covering a range of scales and issues, for example, from the understanding by farmers of change in risk profiles to the establishment of efficient markets that facilitate response strategies. Science, too, has to adapt. Multidisciplinary problems require multidisciplinary solutions, i.e., a focus on integrated rather than disciplinary science and a strengthening of the interface with decision makers. A crucial component of this approach is the implementation of adaptation assessment frameworks that are relevant, robust, and easily operated by all stakeholders, practitioners, policymakers, and scientists.

Vulnerability to climate change of nature-based tourism in the Nepalese Himalayas.

Abstract Given their unique natural attractions, including the highest mountain range in the world, the Nepalese Himalayas have long been a Mecca for trekkers and mountaineers. Nature-based tourism in the Nepalese Himalayas, however, is highly vulnerable to change in climatic conditions. This paper proposes a conceptual framework based on Jodhas mountain specificities, which include inaccessibility, fragility, marginality, diversity and niche, to examine the impacts and vulnerability of climate change on tourism in the Himalayas, with the cases of the three most popular protected areas of Nepal – Mt Everest National Park, Annapurna Conservation Area and Chitwan National Park – located in three physiographic zones. Each physiographic zone differs greatly and hence presents potentially different impacts and vulnerability to climate change. Avalanches and glacial lake outburst floods are the major hazards in high mountains; landslides, debris flows and flash floods are common in the hills; and floods are rampant in lowland Terai. The effects of these climate-related hazards on tourism are further exacerbated by mountain characteristics.

The Impact of Community Context on Land Use in an Agricultural Society

As an initial step toward new models of the population-environment relationship, this paper explores the relationship between community context and local land use in an agricultural setting. In this type of setting, we argue that aspects of the community context, such as schools and transportation infrastructure, impact important environmental characteristics, such as land use. We provide hypotheses which explain the mechanisms producing these effects. We then use data from a study of 132 communities in rural Nepal to test our hypotheses. These analyses show that community characteristics are strongly associated with land use in this agricultural setting. The results point toward changes in communities as critical determinants of environmental quality. These findings are consistent with the notion that changes in community contexts may also condition the population-environment relationship.

Modeling Path Dependence in Agricultural Adaptation to Climate Variability and Change

Path dependence of farmers’ technical choices for managing climate risk combined with farmers’ difficulties in discerning climate change from natural variability might hamper adaptation to climate change. We examine the effects of climate variability and change on corn yields in the Southeast United States using a regional climate model nested within a global climate model (GCM) simulation of the equilibrium atmospheric CO2 concentration of 540 ppm. In addition to a climate scenario with normal variance, we modify the GCM outputs to simulate a scenario with a highly variable climate. We find that climate variability poses a serious challenge to the abilities of farmers and their supporting institutions to adapt. Consistently lower corn yields, especially in the scenario with a highly variable climate, illustrate that farmers’ abilities to make informed choices about their cropping decisions can be constrained by their inabilities to exit from their current technological regimes or path dependence. We also incorporate farmers’ responses to climate change using three adaptation scenarios: no adaptation, “perfect knowledge,” and a scenario that mimics diffusion of knowledge across the landscape. Regardless of adaptation scenario and variance structure, the most common result is a decline in corn production to the point where yield reductions of 1 percent to 20 percent occur across 60 percent to 80 percent of the region. The advantage of the perfect knowledge adaptation scenario declines through time compared to the diffusion-process adaptation scenario. We posit that the cost of path dependence to farmers, in the form of yield reductions, is likely unavoidable because the inherent variability of the climate system will result in adaptation choices that will be suboptimal for some years.

Adapting to Climate Change: Retrospective Analysis of Climate Technology Interaction in the Rice-Based Farming System of Nepal

The development of technological solutions to minimize risks of the current climate can lead to two possible outcomes: increase in agricultural productivity and insights about adaptation to future climate change. Drawing on the hypothesis of induced innovation, we investigate whether spatial variations in climatic resources prompted the development of location-specific technologies that led to increased rice productivity in Nepal. Using Nepals district-level time-series data (1991–1992 and 2002–2003), this article examines the extent to which technological innovations have provided farmers with means to respond to climatic constraints to enhance rice productivity in climatically marginal regions of the country. Complementing this analysis with relevant case studies, we also investigate how and to what extent Nepals research establishments have provided farmers with technological options to alleviate climatic constraints in rice cultivation across the countrys climatically diverse terrain. The findings from both the empirical and qualitative assessment indicate that Nepals research establishment is engaged in and committed to the development of location-specific technologies that address the constraints of climate. The outcome of such commitment has been a series of technological innovations and changes in policies in agriculture. Together, this might have been responsible for higher yields among the districts with marginal climate, which have subsequently led to convergence of the rice productivity growth rate in the country. If the current trend of addressing the constraints of climate in agriculture through appropriate technological as well as institutional changes continues, then the prospect of adapting to further climate becomes more apparent in Nepal.

Population forces and environmental change: Observations from Western Chitwan, Nepal

In this article we report on preliminary observations from an ongoing longitudinal study of the reciprocal relations between population and environmental factors in Western Chitwan, Nepal (a recently deforested, settled, and cultivated area). We discuss population forces associated with environmental change, focusing on forest utilization and flora biodiversity in an area where many residents rely on local forest resources. Our work draws on data gathered from multiple methods including interviews, land-use mapping, and environmental surveys. We find some evidence of population and land-use change influencing forest utilization and diversity in the forested areas surrounding Western Chitwan.In this article we report on preliminary observations from an ongoing longitudinal study of the reciprocal relations between population and environmental factors in Western Chitwan, Nepal (a recently deforested, settled, and cultivated area). We discuss population forces associated with environmental change, focusing on forest utilization and flora biodiversity in an area where many residents rely on local forest resources. Our work draws on data gathered from multiple methods including interviews, land-use mapping, and environmental surveys. We find some evidence of population and land-use change influencing forest utilization and diversity in the forested areas surrounding Western Chitwan.

Community-Based Climate Change Adaptation for Building Local Resilience in the Himalayas

© 2012 Chaudhary et al., licensee InTech. This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Community-Based Climate Change Adaptation for Building Local Resilience in the Himalayas

Niche-based responses in addressing the climatic constraints to farm production: analogues to climate-change adaptation in Nepal

Climate change continues to threaten the lives and livelihoods of small farmers of Nepal. Given the importance of Nepals agriculture to the nations economy, potential impacts of climate variability and change on national food security is a cause for concern. Notwithstanding this challenge, efforts are being made to identify the climate-change impacts on agriculture and actions that farmers and their supporting institutions can take to adapt. The repository of local agro-ecological knowledge available across Nepalese communities is worth exploring. This study, through analysis of four examples of innovative agricultural practices – referred to here as niche-based, details the responses of farmers and their supporting institutions to climatic limitations in Nepal. We identify and synthesize commonalities of the four case studies that may be integral to climate-change adaptation as: (1) the need for participation, flexibility and integration of all stakeholders in the process of innovating adaptation technologies; and (2) the potential for farmers (end-users) and their supporting institutions to take on more leadership and responsibility to sustain the effectiveness of adaptation measures.

What Have We Learned about Climate Variability and Human Health

The topic of human health ranks high among societal concerns. In 2005, United States spent

Adapting Agriculture to Climate Variability and Change: Capacity Building Through Technological Innovation

95 billion on medical research, with studies showing that Americans want more funds and resources devoted to health care and research. Deteriorating environmental conditions are a major contributor to poor health and reduced quality of life, directly responsible for 25% of all preventable illnesses, specifically diarrheal and acute respiratory infections. According to a recent report by the World Health Organization, approximately 7% of deaths and diseases around the world occur because of inadequate or unsafe water, sanitation, and hygiene, and an estimated 5% of deaths and diseases are due to air pollution. Extreme climatic events, such as floods, earthquakes and droughts, also increase the risk of diarrheal disease and outbreaks of vector-borne diseases. Such extreme events threaten not only the individual’s health but also access to health care. In Pakistan, for example, more than 200 health facilities were destroyed or damaged by the flood of historical proportion during the summer of 2010. The aftermath of the Pakistan’s flooding includes the rise of communicable diseases – acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, and skin infections, as well as cases of malaria – prompting the need to develop a larger adaptive capacity as well as strengthening the current public health response.