Climate Change and the Future of Himalayan Farming
Tor H. Aase
Abstract
The book asks to what extent Himalayan farmers and their institutions are prepared to face a future when external production conditions change. Because farming is particularly sensitive to climate, the main aim here is to relate present farming practices to projected future climate changes. Intensive, coordinated studies of six farming communities along the Himalayan range, from China in the east to Pakistan in the west, focus on their potentiality to adapt to climate changes that are projected for 2030, 2050, and 2100. But since climate projections are just projections, and since the context ... More
The book asks to what extent Himalayan farmers and their institutions are prepared to face a future when external production conditions change. Because farming is particularly sensitive to climate, the main aim here is to relate present farming practices to projected future climate changes. Intensive, coordinated studies of six farming communities along the Himalayan range, from China in the east to Pakistan in the west, focus on their potentiality to adapt to climate changes that are projected for 2030, 2050, and 2100. But since climate projections are just projections, and since the context of farming is wider than just climate, the book also asks about farmers’ capacity to adapt to uncertainty in general. For that purpose, theories of ‘flexibility’ that have been applied in ecology, economics, and management science are accommodated to the present topic of farming systems. The assertion is that farmers and farming systems that are flexible are best prepared to face a future of climate change and other uncertainties.
Keywords:
climate change,
farming systems,
Himalaya,
food security,
traditional agro-forestry,
flexibility,
adaptive capacity,
uncertainty
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2017 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780199475476 |
| Published to Oxford Scholarship Online: September 2019 |
DOI:10.1093/oso/9780199475476.001.0001 |
Authors
Affiliations are at time of print publication.
Tor H. Aase, editor
Professor, Department of Geography, University of Bergen, Norway
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