Preserve Mountain Agrobiodiversity

Mountain ecosystems in Nepal are experiencing rapid changes due to climate change and human activities, including outmigration and agriculture abandonment. These factors have substantial impacts on the livelihoods of mountain people. The increasing road networks towards rural settlements have increased the availability of goods and services from nearby markets, thereby contributing to the shifting of traditional agricultural practices. The agricultural production in the high mountains of Nepal hardly supports the livelihoods of local farmers. Hence, they are bound to seek alternative income sources such as small-scale businesses and ecotourism, along with agriculture, for their survival.

Mountains cover about 22 per cent (32 million km2) of the global land surface and accommodate about 1,010 million people (67 per cent rural), and most of them (63 per cent) are in developing countries. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) has estimated that 40 per cent of mountain people are vulnerable to food insecurity. Globally, only three crops, namely, wheat, rice, and maize, account for more than half of the dietary energy supply for humans, and the production diversity is declining rapidly. 

Nepal is witnessing a swift reduction in agrobiodiversity as traditional nutritious crops like buckwheat, barley, millets, sorghum, oats, and beans vanish from local food systems. This trend not only increases reliance on imported food crops but also diminishes the local gene pool, which is essential for cultivating improved crop varieties. Preserving these traditional crops could play a crucial role in developing novel and resilient crop varieties.

The biodiversity in Nepal is uniquely rich, encompassing a reported total of 24,300 biological species. Of these, 28 per cent (6,618 species) are agricultural. Agrobiodiversity holds significant importance within the broader spectrum of biodiversity in Nepal, where it is categorised into six primary components: crops, forages, livestock, aquatic life, insects, and microorganisms. These components are further classified into four sub-components, encompassing domesticated, semi-domesticated, wild relatives, and wild-edible categories. They form an integral part of our food systems and maintain crop diversity, crop habitat diversity, and the assemblage of varieties of crops and livestock breeds. It is therefore highly important to improve diversity in agriculture with the revival of traditional food crops to improve both agricultural and environmental sustainability. The national data from Nepal showed only a slight decline in the share of traditional crops, but there has been a significant decline in agrobiodiversity in the country’s high-altitude mountain regions (e.g., Humla, Jumla, Dolpa, Mustang, and Manang).

Agricultural land is very important in Nepal, as more than 60 per cent of people directly get their livelihood from agriculture. Agricultural activities in harsh climatic zones, and there is a decreasing trend in agriculture and livestock due to switching off agriculture. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has indicated that warming temperatures greater than 1.5–2.0 °C could put 20–30 per cent of species at a higher risk of extinction, and this risk is persistent throughout Nepal. Although climate change could lead to a decline in agrobiodiversity in the mountains, the local farmers are also able to grow vegetables like cauliflower, carrot, cabbage, chilli, tomato, coriander, spinach, and cucumber due to the increasing temperature in the region. Some farmers have also experienced improved size of apple and vegetable crops as well as upward elevation shifting of crops including maize, apple, and others. Additionally, the substantial use of plastic tunnels for growing vegetables has been highly effective in high mountain regions.

There are various natural and man-made drivers responsible for the loss of agrobiodiversity in the high mountains of Nepal. Fundamentally, the introduction of exotic species and their varieties has substantially decreased the indigenous agrobiodiversity in Nepal. With the commercialization of agriculture, there is an increasing trend towards monoculture and hybrid varieties that are continuously replacing local and diverse land races. There is a general trend of population decline and fewer people working on farmland. Also, there is a higher trend of agricultural land abandonment, causing agrobiodiversity to decline. There are new livelihood options such as involvement in tourism, herb collection and trade, infrastructure development projects, agriculture, and non-agriculture labour. Local people mentioned their involvement in non-agriculture sectors for their sustenance, which is also responsible for the general decline in agrobiodiversity. The mountain people would ideally seek direct as well as indirect incentives from the government to conserve their agrobiodiversity resources. Although there has been some support for providing vegetable seeds from the local government, it is inadequate. People do not fully rely on these seed sources for their subsistence and manage seeds on their own. This clearly indicated that the policy measures are inadequate for the conservation of native agrobiodiversity resources. It is emphasised that the local farmers should be made aware of the importance of their indigenous biological resources and need support at the policy level to support them in conserving agrobiodiversity while diversifying their livelihood options and improving their livelihood in such remote locations with harsh environmental conditions.

High-mountain communities have limited knowledge of Agricultural Genetic Resources (AGRs) due to harsh climates and topographic extremes, despite their reliance on agriculture for livelihood. In Nepal, a country rich in agrobiodiversity, native genetic resources have been neglected in research, education, and development efforts, posing a significant challenge. This disparity is particularly evident when comparing the awareness and utilisation of AGRs between high-mountain regions and mid-hill and lowland areas. Efforts are needed to enhance the competitiveness of native AGRs and reduce the current heavy dependence, which stands at 95–100 per cent, on foreign germplasm. 

There is an immediate need to replace foreign agricultural products and germplasm with those derived from native and indigenous AGRs. This involves identifying potential native AGRs globally and promoting them in international markets. Additionally, it is essential to develop site-specific products to cater to diverse agricultural environments. Creating an enabling environment that supports diverse varieties, breeds, and strains is crucial. This involves policies that favour diversity-rich agricultural products and strains. Moreover, efforts should be made to accelerate the evolution of the population to capture diversity from a wide range of agricultural areas. The Agrobiodiversity Policy 2063 (2007 AD) was designed with the objectives of identifying, conserving, maintaining, developing, and sustaining agrobiodiversity and traditional knowledge. It aims to establish farmers' rights in agriculture genetic material resources and traditional knowledge, ensure fair and equitable distribution of these resources, and manage them to balance the ecosystem in line with climate resilience, reducing the impacts of climate change.

Hence, addressing the challenges in Nepal's agrobiodiversity involves preventing genetic erosion and promoting the competitiveness of native AGRs. This includes mechanisms for reducing dependence on foreign germplasm, conserving existing diversity, replacing foreign products with native alternatives, exploring global markets, developing site-specific products, and creating a supportive environment for growing diverse agricultural varieties, including indigenous and local breeds. 

However, the conservation of AGRs in mountain settlements is highly challenging because there are limited options for diversifying agricultural products due to the extreme climate. The only way to conserve AGRs is to promote local indigenous crops and livestock by providing possible subsidies to local people. The maximum integration of local agricultural products into expanding tourism services could enhance conservation of the agrobiodiversity in the region. 

For this, it is highly important to make local people aware of the importance of different components and sub-components of agrobiodiversity. Further, a community financing mechanism could be developed to encourage local people to continue traditional agriculture and integrate local products into tourism and organic crop markets.

(Dr. Tiwari is a plant ecologist at the Central Department of Botany, Tribhuvan University.)