Back to news
28 May 2013 | HICAP

Scoping mission to Assam, India for place-based study on Food Security and Gender

1 min Read

70% Complete

A scoping mission with a team from Aaranyak led by Suman Bisht and Sarah Nischalke from ICIMOD visited five villages in Tinsukia District, Assam, India in the eastern Brahmaputra River basin under the Himalayan Climate Change Adaptation Programme (HICAP). Most villages were adversely affected by floods in 2012 and suffered loss of livestock and agricultural productivity. Food security in these areas is at stake and people have had to increasingly rely on other income sources such as remittances or daily wages from construction sites, tea plantations, or coal mines. Farmers with agricultural holdings in raised areas are replacing food crops with tea cultivation as it provides a more stable income source and requires much less labour than vegetable cultivation. This could possibly lead to reduced food availability in the area.

The mission also identified lower Laopani, a flood-affected area located in northwestern Tinsukia District, for an in-depth study as it hosts a mixed community with elaborate farming systems. The place-based study will be jointly conducted by the food security and gender components within HICAP. It will investigate changing farming systems in the context of climate change and other drivers of change and their impacts on food security from a gender perspective. This is one of many place-based studies planned in the different river basins being researched under HICAP. The overall aim of the study is to assess and show variations in the adaptive capacity of different farming systems to climate change and the bottlenecks in adaptation within the respective communities. The topics will be addressed through a gender-disaggregated research design. The intensive fieldwork will be conducted during the months of May and June 2013.

An earlier study on circular migration and remittances under HICAP was conducted in the lower Laopani area. A larger and intensive Vulnerability and Adaptive Capacity Assessment (VACA) baseline survey covering about 2,000 households was also conducted in Tinsukia District and other districts in 2012. The results from all these research activities will contribute to policy discussions on issues and solutions to climatic and other changes affecting rural lives in Assam.

 

24 Jul 2015 News
SERVIR’s new science in forest fire management gets wider acceptance

The South Asian Forum for Environment (SAFE) intervention on forest fire,with support from ICIMOD’s SERVIR-Himalaya Small Grants Programme, has two strong ...

25 Feb 2015 News
Pilot project launched in Bangladesh

The pilot will be implemented in Bandarban District by the Bandarban ...

10 Nov 2022 News
ICIMOD Mountain Chairs discuss water, energy, and food security in the Eastern Himalayas

Dr Jyoti Prakash Tamang (ICIMOD Mountain Chair 2019–2021, Sikkim University, India) hosted Dr Christopher Scott (ICIMOD Mountain Chair 2020–2022, Penn ...

ICIMOD Joins Hand for Tourism Development in Bahundangi

A day-long long national level campaign to promote tourism in Bahundangi was held 13 April 2016 in Bahundangi, Jhapa. The ...

17 Nov 2015 News
Recovery and Resilience in Nepal

Journalist training workshop investigates earthquake recovery, climate change John Crump, senior science writer with GRID-Arendal, recollects his experiences from ...

30 Sep 2016 News
Training Offers Experiential look into Innovative Livelihoods

An arc of rainbow, light drizzle, heavy showers, lush vegetation, clean streams, waterfalls, shining mountain ranges, misty mornings, leeches, and ...

15 Nov 2016 News
New Publication: Climate Change Impacts on Upper Indus Basin Hydrology

The Indus is one of the most meltwater-dependent rivers on earth. It hosts a large, rapidly growing population, and the ...

Bio-briquettes and Bio-composting in Khar

More than a hundred local community members participated in a training workshop in late January to learn about management of ...