Climate change threatens Kashmir food security: ActionAid report
Climate change is affecting rainfall and snowfall patterns, which in turn are taking a toll on food production in the state, says an ActionAid report On the brink? – which looks at the impact of climate change in Kashmir.
Vegetable production is sliding. The saffron-growing belt is in crisis while the oilseed crop is down by 70 percent, according to the research which included in-depth interviews with farmers and shepherds across the state.
Anticipating a severe shortfall in food output, the report reveals that the once rich paddy growing fields in Kashmir are transforming into arid stretches resulting in a 40 percent drop in food production. The deficit could reach 60 percent in the coming decade.
As more and more paddy land is changed into rain-fed orchards, Kashmir’s current 40 per cent food grain deficit is likely to touch over 60 percent in the coming decade.
Now farmers are less self-sufficient and are buying paddy and vegetables from the market.
If Kashmir’s climate change continues, yields from fruit and cash crops would also be under threat. Low demand for cash crops could cripple their ability to buy food.
“Eight kanals of land used to fetch me 1.5 to 2 kilo of saffron 20 years ago but now I get only 200 grams,” says Abdul Hameed, a local farmer.
Behind the slide
Himalayan glaciers feed Asia's nine largest rivers. Their melting could jeopardize water supplies for the 1.3 billion people who live downstream.
Global warming is causing Himalayan glaciers to melt – small glaciers in many regions of Kashmir have completely disappeared, while others are a quarter of their original height.
Reduction in glaciers is drying up hundreds of springs. According to the report, the last 40 years have seen a reduction in water levels of almost all the streams and rivers in Kashmir by two-thirds.
Less snow
Locals report a massive reduction in snowfall over the last few decades.
Muhammad Maqbool Lone, a 60-yr-old man of Janbazpora village in Baramulla district says, “In my area snow levels have dropped from 7 feet to 1 foot.”
And higher temperatures are resulting in faster meltdown.
Cement-making plants in Kashmir are producing heat-trapping gases that could lead to no snow in the plains over the next two decades.
Besides, over 300 military convoys producing high levels of greenhouse gases move every day across conflict-ridden Kashmir.
Arjimand Talib, who heads ActionAid’s work in Kashmir says, “Greenhouse gases are the biggest threat to Kashmir's fragile ecology and food security.”
Tough laws
The report calls for tougher laws, not only for checking emissions from private vehicles and industrial units, but also from government and military establishments.
The report also urged a shift of focus from infrastructure-intensive tourism to eco-tourism as well as establishing a food security monitoring mechanism and providing support to local livelihoods.
In a year-long survey 571 individuals in nine districts of Kashmir were interviewed by ActionAid with research support from Kashmir University, Tata Institute of Social Sciences of Mumbai, Delhi School of Social Work, Aligarh Muslim University and McGill University of Canada.
