Farmer typology to understand differentiated climate change adaptation in Himalaya.

Smallholder farmers' responses to the climate-induced agricultural changes are not uniform but rather diverse, as response adaptation strategies are embedded in the heterogonous agronomic, social, economic, and institutional conditions. There is an urgent need to understand the diversity within the farming households, identify the main drivers and understand its relationship with household adaptation strategies. Typology construction provides an efficient method to understand farmer diversity by delineating groups with common characteristics. In the present study, based in the Uttarakhand state of Indian Western Himalayas, five farmer types were identified on the basis of resource endowment and agriculture orientation characteristics. Factor analysis followed by sequential agglomerative hierarchial and K-means clustering was use to delineate farmer types. Examination of adaptation strategies across the identified farmer types revealed that mostly contrasting and type-specific bundle of strategies are adopted by farmers to ensure livelihood security. Our findings show that strategies that incurred high investment, such as infrastructural development, are limited to high resource-endowed farmers. In contrast, the low resourced farmers reported being progressively disengaging with farming as a livelihood option. Our results suggest that the proponents of effective adaptation policies in the Himalayan region need to be cognizant of the nuances within the farming communities to capture the diverse and multiple adaptation needs and constraints of the farming households.

Health risk assessment due to biomass smoke exposure in Indian indoor environment: An empirical approach using lung deposition model.

The paper subsumes a framework that assesses health risk due to exposure to different fuel combustion through articulation of modern microscopic techniques, empirical equations, lung diagnostic tools and a pre-existing model that has been extrapolated to futuristic aspects (within controlled conditions). The framework was tested on 132 household cooks belonging to different age groups and using different types of fuel. The inhalable fraction released during fuel combustion varied in morphological characteristics and deposition site. Micrographs obtained using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) analysis of (biomass smoke) soot indicates aggregate formation attributing to a higher level of health risk. Further, abnormal ventilatory function along with higher risk (RR > 1) was more evident within biomass fuel users. The condition further exacerbates while using dung cakes due to high levels of emissions (294.3 particles/liter) that deposit in the upper respiratory tract (0.0899). Further, the population attributable risk percent (79%) calculated on the basis of cooking behavior suggests a 'rural culture' health determinant as clean fuel usage is not practiced as an outcome of low literacy and poor income in the region. These preliminary findings highlight the drudgery of impuissant women who are exposed to high particulate emissions on a regular basis which results in reduced lung function. Nevertheless, further cogitation is required to eliminate the limitations in this study and explore further linkages between exposure and vulnerable group to generate meaningful policy recommendations.

Capturing forest dependency in the central Himalayan region: Variations between Oak (Quercus spp.) and Pine (Pinus spp.) dominated forest landscapes.

Our study explores the nexus between forests and local communities through participatory assessments and household surveys in the central Himalayan region. Forest dependency was compared among villages surrounded by oak-dominated forests (n = 8) and pine-dominated forests (n = 9). Both quantitative and qualitative analyses indicate variations in the degree of dependency based on proximity to nearest forest type. Households near oak-dominated forests were more dependent on forests (83.8%) compared to households near pine-dominated forests (69.1%). Forest dependency is mainly subsistence-oriented for meeting basic household requirements. Livestock population, cultivated land per household, and non-usage of alternative fuels are the major explanatory drivers of forest dependency. Our findings can help decision and policy makers to establish nested governance mechanisms encouraging prioritized site-specific conservation options among forest-adjacent households. Additionally, income diversification with respect to alternate livelihood sources, institutional reforms, and infrastructure facilities can reduce forest dependency, thereby, allowing sustainable forest management.