Sustainable Food systems

Описание: IHR covers 17% of the total geographic area of India and supports 4% of the country’s population. Of this about 70% of IHR population is rural and thus agrarian. Farming in the hills and mountains was traditionally for subsistence, especially as part of the communities’ food system. However, this has changed over the years to more commercial or cash crop farming to enhance the livelihoods of mountain communities.


Agriculture in the mountains faces many challenges due to topography, top soil erosion, monsoon dependence, small land holding access to markets, lack of infrastructure (storage, transport), lack of mountain friendly mechanization tools, crop depredation by wildlife 8 and larger issues of out migration, economic changes and youth aspirations10. These are all exacerbated by the impacts of climate change leading to hydro-meteorological incidents, long dry spells in winter, and natural disasters 11,12. The COVID-19 lockdown has added a series of challenges and vulnerabilities to the existing situation in the IHR.


The IHR has a rich diversity of food cultures from cultivated, foraged and pastoral agroecology which include culinary processes, preparation and preservation. This diversity has provided nutritional security and livelihoods to mountain people. However, mountain food cultures are fast eroding with the onslaught of the food industry, globalisation and homogenisation of food and taste. This has impacted the agrobiodiversity, traditional knowledge and practices of food, loss of dietary diversity and nutritional security. Dietary shifts that are highlighted by “packaged and processed food markets have doubled in India with the overall per capita sales going from USD 31.3 in 2012 to USD 57.7 in 2018”13 and have deep ramifications on health and livelihoods across the IHR. This change is corroborated by the Himalayan Clean-up data since 2018 which have consistently shown that plastic packaging from food and drinks are the top trashed items. Changing food trends are therefore not only resulting in poor health with increasing consumption of nutrition deficient packaged food with excess sugar and salt, but also the problematic plastic packaging leading to a waste crisis in the mountains.


A food system approach in the IHR is essential to approach these issues because poverty, isolation, remoteness, limited access to markets, services, environment degradation, climate change impacts and more recently COVID-19 pandemic make food and nutritional security of mountain people of paramount importance. To ensure mountain people are in the forefront of building back better it is imperative to have a sustainable food systems approach in the mountains14. Further, delving into the importance of food security, safety and sovereignty, will identify urgent steps required for conserving the rich food cultural landscapes of the IHR for Himalayan resilience.