Climate Adaptive Agricultural Innovation in Nepal: Prospects and Challenges

It is evident that agriculture of Nepal is the most sensitive sector to climate change, and adaptations are essential for protecting the livelihood of rural poor farmers and ensuring their food security. Farmers are adopting different practices with climate awareness and sometime with spontaneity. In this chapter, we examined whether these climate change adaptation responses are adaptive and innovative and take into consideration existing and projected climate change and variability. Based on the review of adaptation theories and innovation approaches, researchers primarily draw a climate-adaptive agricultural innovation framework. We looked at empirically captured adaptation practices and analyzed their climate adaptive nature based on productivity, resilience, and equity. This study blends both qualitative and quantitative methods—combining case study of rice-wheat system with quantitative survey from four different regions of Terai, Nepal. The study shows that while agricultural system demonstrates a number of practices that contribute to adaptation, there are fundamental institutional, technological, and policy challenges that restrict the prospect of agricultural innovation required to adapt to changing climate

Turning conflicts into cooperation? The role of adaptive learning and deliberation in managing natural resources conflicts in Nepal

Conflicts over natural resources are likely to escalate under changing socio-economic contexts and climate change. This paper tests the effectiveness of what we term Adaptive Learning and Deliberation (ALD) in understanding and addressing conflicts over the local management of forests and water, drawing on the experimental works in Nepal. Based on a three-year action research, the paper offers policy and practical insights on how complex and protracted conflicts can be addressed through researcher-facilitated inquiry and deliberative process which forms the core of ALD approach. The conflicts included in the study are not solely triggered by climate change but are a result of diverse environmental changes, diverse policy responses to local issues of resource governance, and wider political and economic factors. We analyze experimental practices of ALD implemented in two sites, where our research team facilitated the ALD process, gathering evidence in relation to conflicting institutional issues, all of which was then fed into researcher-mediated and evidence informed deliberations on conflict management. The analysis shows that the ALD process was helpful in rearranging local institutions to accommodate the interests of the conflicting groups and, to some extent, challenge some of the underlying exclusionary provisions of forest and water institutions which have deep social roots in the Nepalese society. We also identify three key limitations of this approach – transaction costs, the need for strong research and facilitative capacity within the research team, and the acceptance of researchers' involvement among the conflicting stakeholders. Finally, we discuss some policy implications of the findings, including potential implications for building climate resilience

Local experts as the champions of water security in the Nepalese town of Dhulikhel

This commentary paper examines our local expert engagement methodology that we developed to understand water supply issues as well as to inform the direction of our action research conducted in Dhulikhel, a small town in Nepal. Through three years of field-based research at Dhulikhel, our inquiry uncovered a range of data ‘gaps’ and emergent as well as long-term conflicts around increasingly scarce water resources. To respond to this gap and contribute to inclusive water management, we developed and used a local expert engagement method, through which we were able to pool and mobilise a rich repertoire of hybrid knowledge from a range of local experts in Dhulikhel and others from nearby towns. The method of expert engagement was simultaneously linked to deliberations among local water stakeholders concerned with water supply management. Based on the lessons from this work, we argue that rich local expertise exists in water management and policy in Nepal, one that transcends the dichotomy between indigenous and scientific knowledge. We also show that as formal scientific knowledge becomes hybridised in different ways, this creates an important and actionable opportunity for advancing local science-policy processes to support water security agendas across the country

Верэсяловыя кусточкі

Верэсяловыя кусточки / Не ламаўшы храскают. / Ой, цеперашныя мальцы, / Не любиўшы, хвастаю

Governance:Key for Environmental Sustainability in the Hindu Kush Himalaya

The governance of environmental resources holds the key to the future of sustainable development in the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH). 1. Institutional innovation-for landscape level governance, upstream-downstream linkages, and for translating policy goals into action; 2. Upscaling and institutionalizing decentralized and community based resource management practices; 3. Transboundary cooperation for managing connected landscapes; and 4. Science-policy-practice interface for decision making, learning and effective implementation of policies and programs.</p