Geography | DFG Food Security in High Mountain Regions

The distinctive features of food security in high mountain regions are often neglected in science and policy agendas. Integrative assessments and multidimensional approaches can redress this neglect and offer the possibility of a deeper understanding of current challenges, especially in the framework of globalization processes. Using a case study from Ladakh, North Indian Himalayas, this study analyses food security strategies of local actors in the context of rapid political and socio-economic change. 
The food system concept is adapted to the setting of high mountain regions to draw attention to complex political, socio-economic, and ecological dimensions of food security. An actor-oriented and multilevel approach is developed based on a critical discussion of current research perspectives. Empirical research using a multi-method approach was conducted in Ladakh between 2007 and 2010. Field research focused on two case study villages in central Ladakh and the district capital Leh. Located in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh was an important node in Transhimalayan trade. Since Indian independence in 1947, the region has become a borderland of geopolitical importance and rapid socio-economic change. This has resulted in massive investments in road infrastructure, stationing of troops and the opening of the region for tourism. Even as Ladakh has become more closely integrated into national and international processes, demands for political autonomy have been brought forward at the same time. 
The study reveals that malnutrition, also described as hidden hunger, is prevalent and usually results from low dietary diversity and seasonal shortfalls of food. Results obtained using empirical data from the villages of Hemis Shukpachan and Igu, show the multifaceted ways in which households secure their livelihoods through a combination of agrarian land use practices, off-farm employment, and external interventions. Subsistence-oriented combined mountain agriculture is no longer fundamental to survival as people’s livelihoods become increasingly diversified. This trend leads to a decomposition of mountain households which become increasingly multi-local. Further, the study shows that local strategies are significantly shaped by development interventions of external actors and their visions of future development perspectives. These are negotiated in a “development arena” where actors with divergent interests and positions of varying power interact. The study concludes with remarks on the empirical results and a discussion for the potential of integrative research approaches at the confluence of development studies and research on human-environment interactions.  

PhD Candidate: Juliane Dame 
Funding: DFG
Duration: 2007-2012

DAME J (2023): Changing Production, Changing Consumption: Food System Transformation in Ladakh. In: Humbert-Droz B, Dame J, Morup T (eds) Environmental Change and Development in Ladakh, Indian Trans-Himalaya. Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, pp 175–195.

DAME J (2018): Food Security and Translocal Livelihoods in High Mountains: Evidence from Ladakh, India. Mountain Research and Development 38:310–322. https://doi.org/10.1659/mrd-journal-d-18-00026.1

DAME J (2015): Multilokalität im Himalaya: Diversifizierung der Lebenssicherung und neue Mobilität in Ladakh, Nordindien. In: Poerting J, Keck M (eds) Aktuelle Forschungsbeiträge zu Südasien: 5. Jahrestagung des AK Südasien, 23./24. Januar 2015, Göttingen. http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/3661/, http://crossasia-repository.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/3661/, pp 37–39.

DAME J (2015): Ernährungssicherung im Hochgebirge: Akteure und ihr Handeln im Kontext des sozioökonomischen Wandels in Ladakh, Indien. Franz Steiner Verlag, Stuttgart.

NÜSSER M, SCHMIDT S & DAME J (2012) Irrigation and Development in the Upper Indus Basin: Characteristics and Recent Changes of a Socio-hydrological System in Central Ladakh, India. Mountain Research and Development 32:51–61. https://doi.org/10.1659/MRD-JOURNAL-D-11-00091.1

DAME J (2012): Zwischen Subsistenz und Subventionen: Ernährungs- und Lebenssicherung in Ladakh. Geographische Rundschau 34–41.

DAME J & NÜSSER M (2011): Food security in high mountain regions: agricultural production and the impact of food subsidies in Ladakh, Northern India. Food Security 3:179–194. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-011-0127-2.

DAME J & MANKELOW JS (2010): Stongde revisited: land-use change in Central Zangskar. Erdkunde 64:355–370. https://doi.org/10.3112/erdkunde.2010.04.05.

DAME J (2010): Auf dem Dach der Welt - Landnutzung und Ernährungssicherung im Himalaya. Praxis Geographie 10:32–37.

DAME J & NÜSSER M (2008): Development Paths and Perspectives in Ladakh, India. Geographische Rundschau - International Edition 4:20–27.