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“The current water source is not sufficient even for drinking purposes
so there is no chance of irrigation for crops and vegetables.”
“We only plant those crops which need less water.”
Tamang woman, Chinke, Dolakha, Nepal
Female water-user group in Ahaldanda, Dolakha, Nepal
Climate change means more variable weather
which exposes farmers to an increasing level
of uncertainty. Uncertainty, as opposed to risk,
cannot be estimated. Farmers’ capacity to cope
with unstable weather is largely determined by
their flexibility, which implies that farmers can
choose between a range of different production
options that are open to them. In contrast to
innovation, flexibility refers to crops or technolo-
gies farmers are familiar with, but which are not
cultivated or practiced at present. In the Trans-
Himalayan valley of Manang, four flexibilities
of the local farming system have been identified
(Aase
et al.
2009):
Firstly
, cultivation can be shifted from the
slope to the previously uncultivated flat valley
bottom where recent temperature increases have
prolonged the frost-free season and water is more
accessible.
Secondly
, a drier climate can be met by reverting
to more resistant cultivars like barley instead of
growing wheat, a crop which has increasingly
substituted barley during the last decades.
Tor H. Aase, CICERO
Thirdly
, conspicuous consumption of items that give
local merit can be substituted by items that do not
take a toll on local agricultural production. One option
in this area is to reduce the number of unproductive
horses which would free more land for human food.
Fourthly
, lack of labour power due to migration
has left a lot of agricultural land abandoned. Land
works like a fat reserve that migrant families can
live off if labour markets or businesses should fail.
Farmers can keep the land in abeyance instead of
selling it to other potential cultivators.
The first three flexibilities are site-specific to
Manang and other similar locations. The fourth
one, however – abandoned land – is widespread
throughout Nepal, especially in the Middle Hills
and in Trans-Himalayan valleys where migration to
domestic cities and abroad is substantial. Keeping
cultivable land empty is optimal for the farmer
whose main concern is to ensure food security for
the family in a situation of increasing uncertainty.
But what is optimal for the farmer proves to be
sub-optimal for the country whose expressed goal
is to achieve national food security.
Flexibility is a viable response to uncertainty
