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Master’s Thesis, 60 ECTS
Social-ecological Resilience for Sustainable Development Master’s programme 2015/17, 120 ECTS
Trying to “fit” in:
Consequences of uniform development goals for diverse social-ecological systems
Radhika Gupta
Stockholm Resilience Centre
Research for Biosphere Stewardship and Innovation
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SupervisorsHenrik Österblom and L. Jamila Haider Stockholm Resilience Centre
Examiner
Sarah Cornell
Stockholm Resilience Centre
3 ABSTRACT
Local social-ecological systems (SES) have diverse needs owing to their heterogeneous properties such as distinctive histories, cultures and environments. Previous studies have illustrated that a failure to recognize spatial and temporal dynamics, especially in the context of the Anthropocene, where ‘time and space are compressed’ due to globalization, gives rise to the problem of ‘fit’. My question investigates to what extent development goals consider cross-scale dynamics for the development of local SES and its importance for SES resilience.
I explored these dynamics in the remote Himalayan villages of West Sikkim, India, through interviews with village and government actors at four different scales of governance,
specifically exploring narratives about agricultural development. There has been a rapid shift from subsistence to commercial farming, with monocultures of large cardamom in the lowlands of the case study region. Additionally, there was a major reduction in livestock population and access to forest resources. Policies for agriculture intensification,
conservation, a national food subsidy and the effects of globalization combined – are pushing these communities to become extremely dependent on external markets and subsidies for income and food, and bringing a change in their diets (as they substitute local food with imported products). My findings suggest that imposing uniform institutions, so-called
“monocropping institutions” have caused the local SES to become increasingly homogenized,
and consequently vulnerable to multiple threats. Simplified solutions for development with
the added pressure of globalization could thus be seen as a homogenizing force on local SES,
ultimately threatening social-ecological resilience at the global scale.
4 TABLE OF CONTENTS
ABSTRACT... 3
Acknowledgements ... 6
Abbreviations ... 7
1. INTRODUCTION ... 8
What is the problem? ... 8
Aim and research question ... 9
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ... 10
2.1 Scale and cross-scale interactions ... 10
2.2 Local SES, diversity and resilience ... 11
2.3 Institutional monocropping ... 12
2.4 Context and context of globalization ... 12
3. BACKGROUND ... 13
3.1 The state of Sikkim ... 13
3.2 Governance structure ... 13
4. METHODS ... 14
4.1 Case study description ... 14
4.2 Literature review... 16
4.3 Semi-structured interviews ... 16
4.3.1 Snowball sampling ... 17
4.4 Participatory food plate activity ... 18
Figure 4.2 Food plate activity ... 18
4.5 Qualitative analysis of interviews... 19
5. RESULTS ... 21
Local SES context and history ... 21
5.1 Drivers and impact at the local SES ... 23
5.1.1 Driver 1: Commercial agriculture intensification ... 24
5.1.2 Driver 2: Subsidized food policy ... 29
5.1.3 Driver 3: Conservation goals ... 31
5.2 Outcomes at the local SES ... 33
5.3 Threats to the local SES ... 36
6. DISCUSSION ... 38
6.1 Cross-scale interactions assumed to be linear ... 39
6.1.1 Local history and SES context overlooked ... 40
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6.1.2 A case of institutional monocropping ... 40
6.1.3 A case of misfits ... 41
6.1.4 The global cloud over the remote local SES... 43
6.2 Sustainability in diversity- local to global concerns ... 44
6.3 Limitations and reflections ... 46
7. CONCLUSION ... 47
REFERENCES CITED ... 48
Appendix A: Policy review pre-fieldwork ... 53
Appendix B: Interview themes ... 55
Appendix C: Interview questions ... 55
Appendix D: Interviewee descriptions and summary ... 60
Appendix E: Consent form ... 62
Appendix F.1: Interview analysis ... 63
Appendix F.2: Results of comparative and single category tables ... 63
Appendix G: Themes and quotes ... 66
Appendix H: Results from food plate activity ... 102
Appendix I: A synthesis of scale and cross-scale drivers, and consequences ... 105
6 Acknowledgements
My parents for providing me with this fortune of an education and constant love and support. My brother for always having my back in all situations. My supervisors, Henrik and Jamila, for their powerful supervision and reminding me to follow the moral compass.
Miriam, for organizing a great introductory year to the programme. My family and lovely friends from Sweden and across the world for fikas and phone calls!
Most importantly, I endlessly owe to those who participated in my interviews, helped me along my way in Sikkim and treated me like a daughter and sister. Their time and love constantly reminded to be a better person before a researcher.
My countless thanks to Soph for her committed reading for feedback! And Drish, who I am now indebted to, for her invaluable proof-reading.
Lastly, to all those who I have met along the way, for awakening and sharing my love for
nature, which today contribute to my small understanding of complex human-environment
relations.
7 Abbreviations
GPU- Gram Panchayat Unit
KNP- Khangchendzonga National Park
MGNREGA- Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act NERLP- North East Rural Livelihood Programme
NFSA- National Food Security Act PDS- Public Distribution System
SCF
-Subsistence to commercial farming
SES- Social Ecological SystemVLW- Village Level Worker
8 1. INTRODUCTION
What is the problem?
Recent studies suggest that we are now in the Anthropocene where the planet and its natural processes are dominated by human activity (Crutzen 2006). In this age, interdependence of social-ecological systems (SES) across the globe is increasing, for example, through trade and flow of information (Hazell and Wood 2007). Globalization strengthens this
interdependence through increased connectivity (Young et al. 2006, Challies et al. 2014) and the integrated SES behave in non-linear and unpredictable ways (Gunderson 2003). Due to this behavior of SES, societies and institutions suffer from surprises and shocks such as flash floods, fish stock collapses, economic crises, etc. (Folke et al. 2005; Walker et al. 2012).
The one-size-fits-all approach (Ostrom and Cox 2010) of development interventions such as foreign aid and natural resource management often miss the large picture of SES behaviour.
An understanding of these social-ecological interactions are important to guide decision making (Berkes 2002, Folke et al. 2005). As development occurs over a period of time and at different geographical scales, it increases cross-scale interactions which can affect the local SES it aims to tackle in different and new ways than expected, thus fail to ‘fit’ (Folke et al.
2007) the system. Further, “numerous system influences and feedbacks affect management outcomes, but these feedbacks unfold under the influence of a diverse range of external influences and constraints” (Sayer et al. 2013:8351), such as globalization (Young et al.
2006).
While studies have demonstrated ‘mismatches’ or ‘misfits’ (example Brown 2003a,
Cumming et al. 2006, Folke et al. 2007, Galaz et al. 2008, Guerrero et al. 2013) they have not
highlighted the role of cross-scale interactions (Bunce et al. 2010) for the development of
diverse local SES. The purpose of this study is to understand to what extent development
interventions consider cross-scale interactions to suit the diverse needs of heterogeneous local
SES. In an attempt to fill this gap, a case study in remote villages of West Sikkim in the
Eastern Himalayas, India, was conducted.
9 Aim and research question
Aim: To explore the cross-scale governance narratives of actors about the changes in local SES, through a case study of sustainable development of agriculture in Sikkim.
In order to achieve this aim, I will investigate the following research questions:
To what extent do development goals for local SES take cross-scale interactions into account, and how and why is it important for SES resilience?
• How do cross-scale interactions shape the development of local SES?
• In what ways are local history and SES context important considerations for effective development decisions?
• How can these cross-scale interactions affect the resilience of local SES over time, and how are they considered by development goals?
More specifically, I will investigate:
• The narratives of actors about changes in agricultural practices over time in Sikkim, with a focus on the local SES
• The reasons behind the changes – as perceived (or not) by actors at different scales of governance
• The consequences of and the reasons for decisions made at each scale and their effects
at the local SES
10 2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
Resource problems are not really environmental problems: They are human problems that we have created at many times and in many places, under a variety of political, social, and economic systems (Ludwig et al. 1993:36).
This study uses an SES lens which “emphasizes the humans-in-nature perspective” (Folke et al. 2010:3). SES properties emerge across multiple variables of space and time due to
countless interactions between social, economic, political and ecological arenas (Folke et al.
2002; Gunderson 2003) and the speed of these interactions is multiplied by globalization (Young et al. 2006).
The meta-concept of this study is scale and cross-scale interactions that drive changes in any SES from the local to the global scale to shape its resilience. Since a disturbance in one part of an ecosystem can have cascading effects on other parts there is a need for cross-scale management (Berkes 2002). Berkes (2002) provides insights on ways to manage complex cross-scale issues through diverse institutions that link them.The types of drivers of change that will be looked at are direct and indirect (non) policy, and context (such as climate change, national GDP, etc.).
2.1 Scale and cross-scale interactions
Scale is defined as a dimension of space or time used to measure a phenomenon (Gibson et al. 2000). Scale and cross-scale interactions are phenomena that interact either at the same scale or across scales (figure 2) and give rise to complex dynamics (Clark 1985, Cash et al.
2006). So far scientific research has mostly examined single scales instead of the cross-scales and the interactions between SES (Cash et al. 2006). Choosing to act on a single scale can favour or neglect certain problems (Jordan et al. 2010), thus serve the interests of powerful actors (Lebel et al. 2005, Reid et al. 2006). This paper attempts to illustrate the occurrence of cross-scale dynamics stirred by development interventions made at multiple scales and how they interact over time to affect the sustainability of SES, an area which is sparsely studied (Cumming et al. 2006). My study will look at two scales (figure 2):
1) Governance – To suit the context of the study, ‘jurisdictional’ scale in Cash et al. (2006)
will be replaced by governance scale. On this scale it is assumed that the smallest unit of the
SES to be managed is the one that has an existing institutional framework where decisions
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are either made or implemented. 2) Temporal – SES have their own distinctive histories over which the system builds (Scott 1998, Evans 2004) for example, independence after
colonization, landscape use shaped by ecological and cultural evolution, etc. Over time such changes together make the local SES what it is at ‘present’ and define its future.
2.2 Local SES, diversity and resilience
The recognition of interdependent socio-cultural, ecological and economic components (Folke et al. 2007) (figure 2) of SES allow for broader governance to match SES attributes
1(Galaz et al. 2008). “The extent to which it does not occur” (Guerrero et al. 2015:1) is defined
1 Galaz et al. (2008) talk about “biogeophysical” attributes, but I replace it instead by the three dimensions mentioned in Folke et al. (2007).
Figure 2: Any local SES has socio-cultural, ecological and economic components that interact with one another and higher governance scales that aim to develop them- through scale and cross-scale interactions, over a period of time.
Several local SES together create heterogeneity of social-ecological properties on a global scale. Homogenization of diverse SES leaves fewer options to cope with shocks. A single development solution for heterogenous SES is called institutional monocropping (Evans 2004). Further, global contexts like globalization interact with policies and the local SES as context drivers.
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as the problem of ‘fit’ (Folke et al. 2007) and specifically as ‘institutional’ misfit (Brown 2003a). Maintaining the diversity of local SES creates heterogeneity of components, which provide options in the time of shocks (Folke et al. 2003, Walker and Salt 2012, Kotschy et al.
2014) and increase social-ecological resilience. Resilience is defined as “the ability of a system absorb disturbance and still retain its basic function and structure” (Walker and Salt 2006:1). Conversely, homogenization of SES (figure 2) leaves fewer options (example, “the Norway spruce” in Scott 1998:20) that would be incapable of responding to unforeseen shocks (Walker and Salt 2006). However, diversity can also be negative when a range of different interests can lead to conflict (Bell et al. 2011) and fewer opportunities of implementing shared knowledge (Jordan et al. 2010).
2.3 Institutional monocropping
A one-size-fits-all approach (Ostrom and Cox 2010) can create institutional misfits, which has been rightly termed as ‘institutional monocropping’ by Evans (2004). Evans writes that this approach arises from the creation of blueprints of the ‘superior’ Anglo-American
development models to suit every country regardless of their own status in world economy or geography. One reason for simplifying reality is the ease of management to increase
uniformity (Scott 1998) when even ‘wicked’ problems (Rittel and Webber 1973) such as climate change are provided with simple solutions (Jordan et al. 2010). Simplification entails maximizing commercial utility of one resource and ignoring the function of diverse resources as a whole (Scott 1998), and generalizing solutions that can lead to ecosystem failures as in the case of the Northern Highlands Lake District (Walker and Salt 2006).
2.4 Context and context of globalization
The context (figure 2) at each scale, here, is defined as existing circumstances or phenomena that constantly affect and interact with local SES components (Giddings et al. 2002). For example, globalization, is characterized by time-space compression (Held 2000, Young et al.
2006), where an action in one part of the world can have a direct and immediate impact on
another (Young et al. 2006) local SES. Other examples are institutions at global, national,
regional scales, national GDP, global and local climate change and social family structures.
13 3. BACKGROUND
3.1 The state of Sikkim
Sikkim is the second smallest state with the smallest population in India (Tambe and Rawat 2009). It lies in the North East Himalayas (image 4.1), with Gangtok as its capital city. Its elevations range from 300 metres to 8400 metres above sea level (Bhasin et al. 1984). Sikkim boasts of the Khangchendzonga National Park (KNP) that covers 25% of its land area that harbours a rich biodiversity (Census of India 2011), including the state symbol- the red panda, and 36 species of rhododendron trees (Sikkim Biodiversity Conservation and Forest Management Project 2012) which draw in a high number of tourists every year. As many as 70% of the population engage in agriculture (Census of India 2011). In early 2015, the state was declared as the first fully organic state of India after banning the use of chemicals fertilizers and pesticides for over ten years (FSAD and HCCD 2014).
West Sikkim, where the villages of the case study are located, is the largest producer of large cardamom in Sikkim. Sikkim itself is the second largest producer of large cardamom in the world, second to only Nepal (Uma et al. 2014).
3.2 Governance structure
Different scales of governance shape the process of decision making, and thus affect the SES in question. Spatial scale in this study is a determinant of how well higher scale interventions
‘fit’ the local SES. The Central (national) government is the highest in order. The state of
Sikkim is in the North East region of India which is under Ministry of Development of North
Eastern Region. Former kingdom, Sikkim, became a part of India in 1975 and was titled the
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ndstate of the current 29 states. Sikkim is divided into 4 districts, of which the case study
area falls under the West district (image 4.2). Gyalshing is the ‘block’ where this study was
conducted. A block is further divided into a GPU or Gram Panchayat Unit which is then
divided into wards. A ward is the smallest unit and it comprises of villages. A ward is headed
by a sarpanch or the village head who is elected by the local people and in theory has a set of
responsibilities of communicating village needs to the higher levels. This case study was
conducted in one such ward of West Sikkim. The ward scale will henceforth be referred to as
local scale or simply ‘ward’.
14 4. METHODS
4.1 Case study description
The ward chosen for the study is situated in close vicinity to KNP, close to the Eastern border of Nepal (image 4.2); and the highest village is at an elevation of approximately 3000 metres.
The population of the ward is less than 300 people (as of 2011), a figure obtained from the Census of India office located in Gangtok.
The villages are inaccessible by road, thus all social, cultural and economic activities within the villages are conducted on foot (image 4.3). This highly remote place and the lifestyle of its mountain communities have been shaped by its surrounding forests both during their time in Nepal (from where they migrated) and later in Sikkim. The main occupation of the people used to be the integrated system of farming with cattle herding in the forests of KNP. The herders used goths or cattle sheds and hired a gothwala to take care of the cattle (this study) for grazing in the forests.
While the livelihoods of the people have depended on their natural surroundings, the people- environment relation has been shaped by development interventions made at different scales by both governmental and non-governmental organizations. There has been an increasing connectivity through technology, and access to public transport in the nearest town. Thus, the SES is in a phase of rapid development and provides a unique set-up to understand the impact of cross-scale interactions on a local SES.
Image 4.2: The fieldsite is located in the West district (blue outline) of Sikkim, close to Khangchendzonga National Park (KNP) and Nepal.
Source: Google Maps Image 4.1: Sikkim in the larger geographic context.
Source: Google Maps
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Image 4.3: Up and down, up and down but mostly up and up- all activities including heavy head-loading in this mountainous forested region are conducted on foot. Photo: R. Gupta
16 Methodology
I used a combination of methods in order to fulfil the aim of the study including literature review, observations on the field, qualitative interviews at multiple scales, and a participatory group activity at the local scale.
4.2 Literature review
Before beginning the fieldwork, documents such as Sikkim Human Development Report (2015) and agriculture policies at different scales of governance were reviewed through online government portals (Appendix A). Additionally, studies conducted in the region were reviewed to support the empirical data collected on field.
4.3 Semi-structured interviews
The fieldwork spanned over a period of three weeks in November 2016. Face-to-face interviews were conducted with 23 respondents in total of which 15 were used for analyses.
The reasons for excluding the remainder were either hurried interviews, bad quality of voice or handwritten notes. During interviews with female respondents it was realized that most women in the villages had either moved from villages far from the field-site or even moved between the villages after marriage from the lowland to the upland or vice-versa. This did not fit into the purpose of the study to explore the changes within the case study region or
specifically the lowland and upland, thus the interviews were excluded. Individual interview details can be found in Appendix D.
Interview durations were between 30-90 minutes depending on time availability of the interviewees. In the villages interviews were conducted in Hindi and for 3 interviews, local translators for translation from Nepali to Hindi were used. In order to confirm the quality of translation, the recordings were reviewed for accuracy by a Nepali speaking academic.
Government actors were interviewed either in English or Hindi. The interviews began with an explanation of the purpose of the study through a plain language statement and a consent form (Appendix E). The consent in each case was verbally recorded.
Two sets of semi-structured narrative interviews (Kvale 2007) were designed, one for village and one for government actors (Appendix C), based on five main themes (Appendix B).
During initial interviews, new information was looked for (Kvale 2007) and the credibility of
events and information was checked by asking unbiased and open-ended questions during the
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following interviews. Narrative interviews are useful in those cases where changes occur over a temporal scale in which past events are linked to the present (Denscombe 2010, Kvale 2007). The aim was to illustrate the changes that the local agricultural system had been through over the last 25-30 years (exceptions were made in case of events that were repeatedly brought up) along with the reasons for said changes. Only those schemes and policies that came up during the interviews at the local scale were discussed at higher scales, unless new ones were mentioned. This method helped to collect narratives at different scales to create a single complex narrative through time due to differences in personal experiences of actors interviewed. The questions intended to find ‘elements of tensions and conflicts’
(Kvale 2007) — in this study the association is made with difference in narratives of the actors interviewed which allowed room to find (mis)fits (see section 2.2).
All interviews were voice recorded and hand-written notes, based on observations were made on the field (Yin 2013) for transcription and analysis. Names of the villages are not revealed and the official positions in the government are generalized as heads of departments in most cases to maintain anonymity.
4.3.1 Snowball sampling
Interviews were conducted at four different scales of governance (section 3.2, figure 4.1).
The first respondent, a farmer, belonged to the ‘lowest’ scale, where I was residing during the fieldwork. Through snowball sampling, participants were selected all the way up to the state scale which is the ‘highest’ scale in the scope of this study. The ward could be divided into
‘upland’ and ‘lowland’ based on differences such as altitude and climate (Appendix F.2).
Information about respondents was gained from key informants who are usually recognized
from their status in their respective social networks (Noy 2008). For example, the village
head provided a map of the villages, which he had hand-drawn, with locations of settlements,
water sources, private forest land and the National Park boundary. He also gave an overview
of how matters of agriculture were communicated to higher governance scales. Thus he acted
as a key informant in providing information about the person to be interviewed at the GPU
scale. The main respondents and the departments they belonged to have been noted in figure
4.1, with a detailed description in Appendix D.
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Figure 4.1: Interviews of respondents included in this study, started at the ward scale including a participatory activity in both the upland and lowland villages. Then interviews were conducted at the GPU, district and state scales in the same order.
4.4 Participatory food plate activity
Changes in food diets at the local scale were pointing at a certain direction about the agricultural practice. A group activity was conducted to triangulate the findings from the interviews (figure 4.2). The aim was to allow participants to collectively recall food habits of the past, list drivers of change(s) in food diets, and rank the top three. A similar study of ranking drivers was done by Bunce et al. (2010). The participant selection criteria of the activity are explained in Appendix H.
Figure 4.2 Food plate activity
Step 1: Two teams ‘A’ and ‘B’ were asked to “prepare” a meal from their daily food by illustrating every possible ingredient on an A3 size paper. The paper had a pre-illustrated empty “food plate” in the form of a simple circle.
Step 2: Ingredients bought from the market were to be marked. A suggestion from a team member introduced another marking for items that were sometimes bought from the market but other times grown in their fields.
Step 3: They showed each other what they had “prepared” for the day’s meal.
Step 4: The teams were then combined and steps 1 and 2 were repeated but this time a meal from as far back as 25-30 years ago was prepared.
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Step 5: Comparisons were made between the past to the present meals and participants reflected on the events (drivers of change) that brought about these changes. They were also asked to rank the events. The final answers were written only upon consensus between all the team members.
4.5 Qualitative analysis of interviews
Post-fieldwork, interviews were transcribed word-for-word in Microsoft Word Document.
While transcribing ‘reflective’ notes were made (Miles and Huberman 1994). Subsequently, tables were created in Microsoft Word Document to organize data. The process was aimed at reduction to select and focus (Miles and Huberman 1994), requiring critical decisions of discarding certain data.
The village actor interviews were analyzed twice, where the first analysis was preliminary (Appendix F.1) and the second, a re-organizing of the data (table 4.1). Further, comparative tables such as differences between upland and lowland, old and new practices, and
information on the old food system were created (Appendix F.1). Patterns that suited respective categories were identified (Miles and Huberman 1994; Braun and Clarke 2006) within each of the respondent narratives. For a more reliable interpretation of the last category of ‘tension’ narrative (table 4.1), the transcribed material (before and after the sensitive quote being used), was carefully read through, and in some cases the voice recording was referred back to, in order to understand the tone of voice and expression.
Table 4.1: Re-organization of data categories and explanation for village actor interviews Driver(s) of
change, year and scale of occurrence
Consequence/
Benefit to the local SES
Context Tension narrative/
Mismatch Threat Nature of
decisions
Self
explanatory -Quotes about the changes that happened -Benefits were specifically highlighted
Relevant context such as market prices, globalization, urbanization
Mismatches arising due to policy and non-policy decisions
- Quotes of threats due to the driver
Quotes of policy and non-policy decisions
For the government actors the categories were as follows in table 4.2. Care was taken to exclude answers that were prompted, to minimize an interviewee bias (Denscombe 2010). At the end, quotes from all the analysed data were compiled into one document under 38
different themes that were identified. These themes create a complete narrative of changes
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that took place in the SES and how they came about as perceived by the interview respondents (Appendix G).
Table 4.2: Data organization categories and explanation for government actor interviews Organizati
on/goal Narrative Action/ Policy Nature of decision making/ thought process
Tension narrative
The structure and or goals
Quotes of opinions and answers to questions
Self
explanatory Quotes of how decisions are made and/or opinions on the same
Difference from what was said at the village level, (mis)match in decisions from SES
properties
21 5. RESULTS
Local SES context and history
The local history can be divided by two major demarcations (figure 5.1). I. ‘The merger’ of the kingdom of Sikkim with democratic India in 1975, divides the Sikkimese history and thus the local history, into the pre-merger and the post-merger periods. Interviews with local scale respondents revealed that they consider ‘India’ to be outside Sikkim, implying that Sikkim is not a part of India (Appendix G, quote 15.4). II. ‘The grazing ban’ was implemented between 2002-03 in the area of the case study (R1, local scale). Thus it divides the local history into the pre-grazing ban and the post-grazing ban periods.
Figure 5.1: The two demarcations of the history of the local SES. I. The merger of the kingdom of Sikkim with Democratic India in 1975 and II. The grazing ban implemented in 2002-03 at the local SES which ended the traditional herding practice of the communities.
I. The merger (1975)
Pre- merger, the local SES was first inhabited by migrant herders from Nepal in the early 1930-40s (R9, local scale). From just two households then, the ward has over 60 of them (as of 2011) (http://www.census2011.co.in/).
The merger of Sikkim had three major consequences on the local SES. First, Sikkim came under the institutional framework of democratic India and there was a complete shift in policies from the past monarchic rule. New laws over land ownership rights were
implemented as discussed in (Chakrabarti 2010) that carry a baggage of land holding size
which to date affects differences in consumption from subsistence farming and economic
gains from commercial agricultural production. Second, at the local SES, post-merger, the old
system of patta or tax on grazing domestic animals in the forest and cutting of certain species
of trees became completely non-existent:
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“Earlier there was a fee. Meaning it had a patta or ‘tax’. Each cow was 50 paisa2… Juniper tree also had a tax for cutting it. Then for those who burn wood while staying in the goth, then those who make pangling (wooden shed) to stay there, were also taxed. It was not so much, but still it existed… That time bull, horse, yak were taxed the highest. The horse was also high because they do not sleep. They ate all night.
Bulls because they have big bellies *laughs*…But that time goat was not allowed in the forest. Because all the small plants were completely ripped off their skin, they finished them...”
(R9, upland, local scale)
The above quote indicates a depth of knowledge on the intensity of impact of different
grazing animals, used as a motivation to tax animals or the use of forest products. However, it is not clear how strictly regulated the tax system was.
The third consequence of the merger was that the local SES, comprising of villages in the upland and lowland, came under the same institutional ‘ward’. This has resulted in uniform policy and non-policy implications despite the difference in social-ecological needs
(Appendix F.2) owing to a difference in the altitudes at which they are located.
II. The grazing ban (2002-03)
With the merger came new opportunities according to Tambe and Rawat (2009) and it brought with it new markets that increased the demand for dairy products. This in turn led to an overall increase in cattle population in several parts of Sikkim (ibid). In 2002-03 a ban on grazing came into effect at the local SES. The reason for implementing the ban was “serious degradation [of forests]” according to Tambe and Rawat (2009:95). It ended the traditional livelihood of cattle herding and negatively impacted the economic condition of the herders in the highland, since the climate does not support the cultivation of any mainstream cash crops as in the lowland. Pre-grazing ban, income was earned from selling livestock products such as yak ghee (fat), churpi (cheese), milk, meat and calves by goth owners. The average annual net income of a gained from livestock by a herder in West Sikkim, dropped from INR
25,688.64 to INR 11,104 (Bhagwat et al. 2012).
2 100 paisa make 1 Indian rupee, paisa being a denomination of the past.
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Having understood the historic context of the local SES, the results of this case study are demonstrated in four main points. First, there were three main (sets of) drivers that interacted with one another at different scales and caused three major impacts at the local SES (figure 5.1). Second, the impacts on the local SES were I. a major shift from subsistence to
commercial farming, II. limited livestock and III. restricted access to forests for the village communities. Third, the overall outcome at the local SES is that a.) the system is leaning more towards a dependence on external food markets and b.) the previous sources of food were more diverse but varied depending on farm land size and the time spent in the
traditional practice of herding in the goth. Fourth and the last, this causes multiple threats to the sustainability of the local SES (figure 5.3).
5.1 Drivers and impact at the local SES
This section will explain the three drivers of change and their impact on the local SES in detail. It should be noted that the impact at each household level could have been experienced at different points in time and/or of a different intensity. Along with each driver, quotes by
Figure 5.1: Drivers of change that have brought a shift from subsistence to commercial farming, limited livestock and reduced access to forests have made the local SES more dependent on external food markets and reduced the diversity of food sources and food itself.
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Image 5: Large cardamom monocultures in the lowland villages.
actors at different scales have been used to describe changes at the local SES caused by the cross-scale interactions and the process of decision making.
5.1.1 Driver 1: Commercial agriculture intensification
This section describes the first set of agriculture related non-policy A and policy B, C, D drivers, and their interaction that contributed to the shift from subsistence to commercial farming (SCF) (figures 5.1, 5.2). While this shift contributed to the farmer’s income/savings, it also brought about economic inequality between the upland and lowland (figure 5.2). After the ban on grazing, the lowland converted into monocultures of large cardamom (image 5), a cash crop, and the upland grew mixed vegetables due to difference in climatic conditions.
The upland dwellers gain even less profit due to higher head-loading charges of carrying the produce. The description and consequences of monocultures have been narrated by a farmer and a lower scale government actor:
“In front of the eyes, 10 years ago cardamom fields were less. But now there’s only cardamom-cardamom. You can’t even see houses!”
(R1, local scale, lowland)
“Well the change [from the past] is that all people plant cardamom. They plant it in their ‘kitchen gardens’ also.”
(R12, VLW, GPU scale)
25 A. Global demand for cardamom
The market demand for the cash crop drew policy attention into intensifying cardamom growth:
“And the most important one, a boon, a blessing to Sikkim, to the people and to the farmers is cardamom. There is a ready market and currency exchanging crop.”
(R14, Horticulture head, district scale)
The high value of cardamom coupled with increasing expenses also attracted the farmers’
attention, as one of them describes, “With corn, potato and cauliflower one cannot earn money, it is only sufficient for food.” (R1, local scale, lowland). State scale government actors explain the problem of labour, land shortage, and increased need for money as a reason for this shift. The driver of land shortage is not brought up at the local scale.
“It is not us telling them, it is because of the situation… if they see some farmers getting good money from growing cardamom, definitely they’re going to see he’s growing cardamom, he’s bought a car. He will follow.”
(R19, horticulture head, state scale)
“[We have] limited land holdings. So what people do is instead they go in for high value low volume crops. For example cardamom, in an acres of land, you sow paddy, you won’t earn as much as you would in cardamom. Cardamom you would get I think a hell lot of money.”
(R18, agriculture head, state scale)
B. Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (2015) and C. Distribution of hybrid seeds (post-merger)
Further, the monocultures in the lowland and the overall shift to SCF are an impact of
policies B and C. Distribution of irrigation equipment, carried out under the Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (2015), has made it possible to grow cardamom in dry areas as opposed to the past:
“Parents used to say you can plant cardamom only where there is water.”
(R3, lowland, local scale)
26
This picked up as a local trend after one of two fields succeeded after trial and error. On the contrary, the village head explained the process as a demand that he made on behalf of his community:
“I tell them [community] that in the winter season, cardamom crop faces problems due to [strong] sunlight. I demand for palli pipe, syntax (tank) for water... Last year they gave 8-10 syntax and palli pipe.”
(R2, village head, local scale, lowland)
The Village Level Worker (VLW) who is in charge of distributing subsidised commodities, adds information to the process of this scheme, an awareness campaign followed by a procedure of compulsory distribution. She explains that it comes from the Central (national) government and then implemented at the state. The scheme is announced and the village head makes a list of ‘beneficiaries’ (Appendix G, quote 30.2, R12, VLW, GPU scale).
The irrigation equipment and hybrid seeds distribution from the top is further confirmed by government actors at higher scales:
“Another is that we have rain-fed crops; we don’t have proper irrigation facilities. So during the lean periods the farmers find it very difficult to get their crops irrigated..
We are providing most of them water harvesting tanks, sprinkler irrigation systems, drip irrigation system…We are not able to provide it to each and every one of them farmers.”
(R14, Horticulture head, district scale)
“Most schemes are from the government of India itself. So some component of their schemes does have components saying that you have to do demonstration of hybrid and high yielding varieties. So it is mandatory.”
(R18, Agriculture head, state scale)
The agriculture head further explains how the varieties are not accepted or suited to the local conditions and how “most of the farmers are reluctant to use new varieties” and “stick to their own traditional varieties of crops.”
“Hybrids and all are not specifically made for the state. It’s done in a way for each region. So if we fall in that region of course it might be adaptable. Otherwise for us it doesn’t [work]...100s and 100s are released every year and most of them don’t do well here.”
27
Contrarily he then makes an argument for why hybrids are a good option to increase production, for a mountain state like Sikkim with land shortage enhanced by infrastructure development.
D. MGNREGA (2005)
While subsidies such as distribution of hybrid seeds is a mandate for states, each state has
certain power to customize national policies as Sikkim has done for Mahatma Gandhi
National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) (2005) (figure 5.2). Residents of
rural areas are promised 100 days of daily jobs through construction of infrastructure such as
foot paths. 40% of the fund is spent on material and 60% for worker wages. In this case, it
was customized to 40% of funds for large cardamom saplings distribution, and 60% to
workers going for khetla (working in the cardamom fields of an owner in the village).
28
Figure 5.2: Cross-scale drivers (A-G) and consequence drivers on a spatial and temporal scale causing impacts (I-III) and outcomes (a, b) at the local SES as viewed in 2016.
29 5.1.2 Driver 2: Subsidized food policy
This section is a description of the policy of distributing free or subsidized rice to the
populaiton that meets the criteria of being below the poverty line (BPL); and how it triggered the downfall of subsistence farming according to some, but benefitted many others.
E. Public Distribution System (PDS) (1985 onwards)
After the merger, the PDS was introduced to the local SES, where BPL ration card holders could claim free rice of 35kg per family, per month. The policy was recently reformed by the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to allocate 5 kg of rice for Rs. 3 per family member per month to a new category of AAY (Antyodaya Anna Yojana) card holders - that makes it possible to include a larger population of poor people who are above the poverty line, yet poor (R16). These criteria vary based on different state-wise poverty level lines (Dame and Nüsser 2011). Along with a shift from SCF, it impacted the village actors differently because of varied needs. It also competed with the state’s cereal crop market due to cross-scale interactions as described in table 5.1 and figure 5.2. The aim of the policy is to contribute to income savings of the “poorest of the poor” people of India:
“There is a huge gap in between the poor and the rich. This is an added benefit to the poor. It is a kind of benefit that helps them to live their life. It is a 3 fold approach in NFSA. They should be getting quality food, appropriate quantity and comfortable price. So if a poor person gets this kind of benefit, then it will help him or her to uplift their life standard. That is the main aspect- The main reason for supplying food to the poor people and the downtrodden people of society.”
(R16, Food and Civil Supply head, district scale)
He also explains that the criteria for selection of poor people is based explicitly on an
economic survey and not the type of crops the farmer grows (see Appendix G, quote 21.28).
30
Table 5.1: Impact of subsidized food policy on local SES Impact of
subsidized food policy (PDS)
Respondent and
scale Respondent narrative
Subsistence to commercial farming
R16, Food and civil supply head, district scale
R3, local scale, lowland
R13.2, agriculture officer, district scale,
“I have been getting reports from villagers that people have given up everything because they are getting rice almost free of cost, right?”
“Outside rice started to come from shops. When we used to grow these things [subsistence crops], rice was not available so ‘openly’
it was ‘limited’... we used to grow [our produce] and eat.”
“Another reason [for shift to commercial farming] is that the government gives BPL rice for less or even free of cost for some people. So what is the need to cultivate a lot of crops?”
Income/ savings (but the needs at the local SES varied)
R5, local scale, lowland
R6, local scale, lowland
“Yes [it has helped], a lot, of course! We could save little-little money. We had to raise big families. When the government gave 35 kg rice it was as if in an empty night, the moon came out!
…And now it is really good. The 5kg per person.. even a one month, 2 month or 3 month old child gets 5 kg. They cannot eat so much. That is very useful for the family then.”
“Yes, it has been useful. Some people did not even have enough money to buy the subsidised rates at which it is being given.
*laughs*”
R3, local scale, lowland
R4, local scale, lowland
“No, we did not need rice. We had our own agriculture produce of wheat, jou, phapar, potato, maize..I don’t really know why they started giving rice. They gave it so we ate it.”
“I do not think so that we needed the BPL rice. Because the house had all the stock of wheat and corn, a lot of it. And at night they made a lot of items. Rice from corn- rice and flour… Traditional mill (jaatu) made of stone- we used to churn it. And by mixing the flour and rice we made a dish. We ate that and slept. In the morning also. It was good for health also.”
“Some used to sell it to other families and some would make chaang (fermented beverage) from it. And some offered it to the people who would come to work in their fields.”
Decline of state cereal crop markets
R12, VLW, GPU scale “If they plant dhaan (paddy) there is no point as rice comes from the plain area. Everybody buys that and eats. So people think planting dhaan is a waste of time.”
31 5.1.3 Driver 3: Conservation goals
Concerns for forest conservation led to policy implications that eliminated old means of livelihood, caused outmigration, increased the wild animal population and thus paved the way to commercial farming as an alternative. In addition as targeted, it restricted their use of the forests and brought down the livestock population owned by herders (figures 5.1, 5.2).
F. Declaration of the National Park (1977)
As explained earlier, post-merger, Indian laws such as the Wildlife Protection Act (1972) became applicable to Sikkim, which makes it illegal to kill wild animals. In 1977, the
Khangchendzonga National Park (KNP) - a neighboring forest of the local SES, was declared as protected (figure 5.4) (Maharana et al. 2000). Today, the state of Sikkim is known to be one of the strictest in implementing its conservation related laws according to respondents across every scale. Over time, the access of communities to the forests and its resources has been restricted (figure 5.4). This potentially increased the forest cover, the wild animal population, and thus the number of incidences of wild animal interference, causing the SCF (figure 5.2).
Production of a main staple, phapar (buckwheat), along with ooa (similar to wheat), was discontinued due to conservation goals. The jungle used to be cleared and a fire was set off, for the ash to help the buckwheat and ooa growth, according to respondents in the lowland.
However, a fear of forest fires resulted in a ban on this slash and burn practice of agriculture.
G. Ban on grazing (2002-03)
In 1999 the Sikkimese government banned cattle grazing in selective parts of KNP (Tambe and Rawat, 2009). In 2002-03 the ban was implemented in the region of the case study. The immediate effect was a complete loss of the traditional livelihood (figure 5.5) of cattle herding through the gothwala system .This led to outmigration (for tourism jobs) which meant less helping hands in the farms, thus a stronger push to commercial farming. The trend of outmigration was encouraged with more income savings from the practice of commercial agriculture (figure 5.5). Resentment against favoured and selective grazing ban is felt up until today among one of the herders as it reduced the livestock he owns and the income it
generates (Appendix G, quote 2.14, (R9, local scale, upland)
32
Another respondent complained about the lack of measures taken by the government to improve their livelihoods post-grazing ban:
“The government did nothing. We traded 18 yaks. We got 30,000 Rs. and did not get [the remaining] 81,000 Rs. They wrote it on paper. They said after 4 months we will come and give it. But they did not come. This was in 2004. Now we are in 2016.”
(R5 local scale, upland)
Post-grazing ban, the access into KNP became even more difficult and some actors suggested that it possibly increased the wild animal population. These factors together contributed to the decline of subsistence farming. On the other hand, one of the respondents thinks that people’s efforts have gone down to protect fields from animal attacks as compared to the past
(Appendix G, quote 1.8, R6, local scale, lowland). It is important to take note the respondent was not a herder in the past, which could bias his views on the impact of the grazing ban.
It is also visible that the conservation goals of the Foresst Department and conservation NGOs alike do not match the village community’s worldview. One of the respondents explains how he is part of a community conservation programme and finds himself to be in a difficult position about “protecting” “wildlife”:
“On the one hand.. I am the protector. For example I have to save ‘wildlife’ and
‘protect’ it. But the agriculture we do, they come and destroy the very same.”
“The jungle is increasing because Forest Department says that don’t cut the bamboo or fell trees. They are doing plantations every year. And the jungle has increased then wildlife will obviously increase. There is also a ban on killing them.”
(R1, local scale, lowland)
A mismanagement of the same community conservation programme has caused
disappointment due to lack of appreciation upon the confiscation of illegally traded wildlife
(Appendix G, quote 2.15).
33 5.2 Outcomes at the local SES
This section describes how the three impacts of the shift from SCF, limited livestock and restricted access to forests resulted in the outcome of a.) reducing diversity of food and food sources and b.) dependence of SES on external food markets (figures 5.1, 5.2).
The food plate activity revealed that items that were bought from the market in the past were mainly salt, rice and chillies. On the other hand, those herders who had smaller land holdings and/or spent more time in the goths, bought items such as rice, wheat and maize. These were purchased either from lowland villages or by loading their pack animals in the month of December and stocking the purchase for a year, from the Geyzing (the capital of West Sikkim) market. This practice has drastically changed from the pre-merger period. The top three reasons ranked by the village actors who participated in the food plate activity are presented in Appendix H. Among the overlapping drivers mentioned by both were
interference of wild animals, subsidized rice from the government or availability of rice from outside and increase of [external] markets. The stop to the slash and burn practice was also counted as among the top three reasons by the lowland participants for changes in food diets.
The three main food resources which were identified from the past were - subsistence
farming, forests and livestock. These resources provided a high diversity of foods for people, feed for livestock and manure for subsistence crops, as described in table 5.3. It is clear from section 5.1 that the drivers of agriculture intensification, subsidized food policy and
conservation goals, respectively, continue to strongly interact and have caused a decline of this diversity. Another important driver that interacted with these three was the rise of external markets and increased income which have made it possible to buy “anything”
according to a government actor (Appendix G, quote 19.26).
“There was no market nearby and we also grew everything…There used to be a lack of education, transportation to Darjeeling, Geyzing, Gangtok would have to be reached by foot. We got all food items in the house by growing them. If we only went to buy kerosene [in the shops] we were forced to buy other things also. They did not give just kerosene.”
(R4, local scale, lowland)
34
Table 5.3: Food and food resources of the past, and reduction in diversity of the same Past food
resource (3) Past food(s) Replaced by Narrative of actors 1.Subsistence
farming Staple crop rotation (those with enough land and time from herding)
Monocultures of large cardamom in the lowland and hybrid, off-season vegetables in upland
“When I was 10-12 years old there wasn’t margin for cardamom..
there was more corn and potato.. there was big fields of corn.. it was difficult because it was huge... we used to sow wheat also along with that.. rotation between wheat and corn and others…” (R1, local scale, lowland)
“Earlier agriculture was the only life line, it was a tough task but still it was due to combined efforts of all the people as they used to support each other so they could survive for a year…But then everyone left agriculture and started cardamom cultivation.” (R6, local scale, lowland)
“…But cardamom used to be in forest areas. They have never cultivated cardamom in paddy field, or in dry field or in their private field also. Because that was a practice they used to take up in those days in the jungles and all.” (R14, Horticulture head, district scale) Buckwheat
and ooa No replacement The ban on slash and burn practice discontinued production of buckwheat and ooa (similar to wheat) (see section 5.1.3).
Staples of millet, barley, maize, wheat
Either replaced by subsidized rice from government, available in external markets or stopped
“Earlier we used to eat corn and potato, ooa, wheat and we used to eat the agricultural produce of the village. And nothing else. Now we only eat rice.” (R10, local scale, highland)
“Millet, buckwheat, wheat, barley. We have completely stopped it.
We used to use it for our own consumption.. did not sell much. We used to make pancake (and) roti from it. It was all really healthy. But now we eat this BPL rice and have got really thin. *laughs*” (R3, local scale, lowland)
“[Products made were] buckwheat pancake, roti, millet roti and chaang, sometimes buckwheat roti, sometimes wheat roti, sometimes maize rice and popcorn from corn for dinner, lunch, breakfast so on.”
(R4, local scale, lowland)
“We got money and from that now we buy rice outside. Earlier the food was ‘organic’ so we got more ‘vitamin’. The rice that comes from outside must have pesticides to keep pests away. Maybe it is rotten or old. But the food from our own fields is fresh.” (R6, local scale, lowland)
Millet as food and fermented alcoholic beverage
Millet from external
markets “There used to be kodu (millet). People have millet chaang (fermented alcoholic beverage) now. That time they used to use it for food also.
Now not any more, we have to buy millet from outside and make chaang. So we don’t make millet flour from it.” (R1, local scale, lowland)
Mustard oil
for cooking Refined palm oil from external markets
“We used to make mustard oil from mustard seeds and use it. Now we buy refined oil, palm oil from the market.”
(R4, local scale, lowland)
“They used to also plant a lot of mustard over here [in the West]. They would make oil and ‘stock’ it for one year in the villages. It was not in the market earlier. This is the reason for the ‘shortfall’ of ‘cereal crops’.” (R13.2, district scale, agriculture officer)
Seeds Hybrid seeds from government subsidies
“Whatever seeds we needed we had them like for corn or others. The government did not give us, we had them in the villages. We used to harvest it and based on needs (10-20 kg) we kept aside, and the rest we ate and planted in the fields.” (R4, local scale, lowland)
35
Maize as feed for farm animals
Purchased stall feed Earlier, the maize that was produced in agricultural fields was used to feed farm animals whereas it is now purchased outside [observation]
2. Forests Wild leaves, mushroom, bamboo shoots, fruits like kawlo, banta and medicinal plants
New varieties of vegetables grown from government distributed hybrid seeds/ externally purchased vegetables Lost to knowledge due to restricted access
“We bought corn from down. It was really cheap. We bought rice. And salt. And there were veggies in the forest, laipatta, wild mushroom, wild saag, and wild garlic. It’s good like medicine. *laughs*” (R9, local scale, upland)
“Sometimes if we find it then we definitely eat it, otherwise we don’t go in [to the forest] that much. Bamboo shoots used to be eaten, now we plant our them in our own land.” (R1, local scale, lowland)
Pasture for
grazing Purchased stall-
feed In the past, pastures in forests were used for grazing which have now been replaced by stall feed due to ban on grazing [inferred]
Wild animal meat like deer
Prohibited “Earlier there was a lot of meat eating in Sikkim. There is a ‘control’
now. Now people believe more in not killing animals. Now meat consumption is very less as compared to earlier.”(R9, local scale, upland)
3. Livestock Meat Reduced
consumption Livestock was used for meat consumption which has gone down from the past due to limited animals [inferred]
Dairy such as milk, curd, churpi, ghee
Limited self- production, lowland villages purchase it from upland
“Eggs and milk is from home. No ghee (fat) and churpi (cheese). Now we buy it from the upland villages. Earlier we made it.” (R1, local scale, lowland)
Cowdung as manure for agriculture
Government taught techniques to make organic manure- one includes buying chuna (limestone) from the market
“Yes, there was more of cow manure. Cows were reared more. But now there are less. So not everyone can make it.”
“The old cow manure and the new type are just about the same.. Now we have to get chuna (limestone) from the market.”(R2, village head, local scale, lowland)
“Earlier animals also used to be high in number- cows, goats. The manure used to be a lot. Therefore maize and dhaan (rice) used to grow very well.” (R13.2, district scale, agriculture officer)
36 5.3 Threats to the local SES
The impacts and outcomes bring multiple threats to income and food security of the local SES as of today (figure 5.3). Of these, disease in large cardamom crops is already bringing lower yields for some farmers coupled with fluctuating market prices. The narratives around the threats have been presented in table 5.4. The implications of some of these will be discussed in chapter 6.
In defence of threats to farmers’ livelihoods due to large cardamom monocultures, several government actors expressed that cardamom cultivation was a choice and their job was to create awareness and not impose the practice. They also expressed that the integrated system of farming would help to cope with market price fluctuation or diseases, as farmers maintain a livestock population for back-up (read quotes under Appendix G, 35).
Figure 5.3: State of the local SES and threats to sustainability. The underlined words are threats that have already occurred.
37
Table 5.4 Threats to the local SESThreat Description Narrative of actors Unemployment Population that has out-
migrated for education and jobs has not learned the practice of
agriculture and
unemployment rates in Sikkim are very high
“I tell my two kids if you do it or not in the future, you should learn the practice [of agriculture]. We also learned from our parents. Education is not enough. 30 years you study, maybe you don’t get a job. There’s a small chance in Sikkim. I am not sure to what extent I am right.” (R1, local scale, lowland)
Loss of local
knowledge Due to loss of traditional livelihood, decline in practice of subsistence agriculture and loss in diversity of food sources
“From oak trees wax kind of thing, we used to have it as tea.
It has stopped. I have not seen it… People do not even remember it. It has become like a tale of the past.” (R4, local scale, lowland)
Disease/
epidemic Lower yields due to on-going diseases. An epidemic can bring the cardamom
monocultures to an end
“In some good places it is also doing well. But in 2 years the same fungus gets there also. 10 years ago one crop planted would last for many years. Now one crop planted this year does not do well the next year.” (R1, local scale, lowland)
“We had about 24,000 hectares under cardamom. Few years back- 10 years back there was a epidemic disease outbreak, it is a fungal disease called Colletotrichum … Our total area was reduced to 50%...” (R19, horticulture head, state scale) Fluctuation of
market prices Market prices have been unstable and a crash in prices threatens the livelihood of large cardamom farmers
“The same land, the same type of crops are not giving those many yields. We are alive only because the rates are still high.
The technique to plant them has also changed which is not so successful. Maybe something is going wrong with the land.”
(R1, local scale, lowland) Reduced soil
quality Cardamom
monocultures can reduce soil fertility Past subsidies on urea have hardened the soil at local SES
“…of course in agriculture for the hill state, there will always be challenges. We have a lot of rains here. Because of the rains a lot of bleaching goes on- a lot of nutrients are washed away.
Our soils are very acidic.” (R18, agriculture head, state scale) (See Appendix G, quote 9.2)
Food insecurity Future shocks such as famine can cause a stop to distribution of subsidized rice, lack of labour and shortage of land
“If we don’t get BPL [subsidized rice] then it will be difficult. We will eat more of wheat and maize flour.” (R5, local scale, highland)
“If there’s a strike, a war in the future, and the rice stops coming from outside then [the children] should learn the practice of agriculture. Right now the rice comes from Siliguri, it’s not grown here.” (R2, village head, local scale, lowland)
“…major problems are there, reclamation of soil…, very little land for cultivation.”
“Food security we may have a bit problem... Sustainability in cereal crops definitely, because our land holdings are decreasing every day.”
(R18, agriculture head, state scale)
38 6. DISCUSSION
The historical changes at the local SES due to cross-scale interactions are summarized in figure 6.1. During the pre-merger period, the monarchic rule supported the integrated livelihood system of farming and herding (table 5.3) through an access given to the forests while maintaining a tax. This study recognizes that informal community institutions (Dietz et al. 2003) could have played a big role in managing the herding practice in the forests
(examples in Bhasin 2011). It is not known to what extent the tax and informal institutions contributed to ecosystem maintenance and/or if it was meant to exert power. Nonetheless, the institutions helped to maintain a large base of diverse food through the integrated livelihoods of the communities. Education rates were low, and the life as described by several village actors was that of hardship due to the toilsome practice of subsistence agriculture to save up food for the rest of the year. The personal experience of the horticulture head at the state scale (R19) suggested a positive shift in economy and thus a higher standard of living (Appendix G, quote 27.2).
Figure 6.1: From an interlinked agro-livestock-forest farming system during monarchic rule which provided a large base of diversity, to separation of these systems due to parallel focus on poverty alleviation and conservation in the democratic reign- causing the “diversity triangle” to reverse and homogenize the food system- one that is vulnerable to threats. These changes were influenced by the global cloud of drivers.
