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Agroecology as a Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for Smallholders of Tehri-Garhwal in the Indian Himalayan Region

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Abstract

Climate change is expected to increase temperatures and rainfall in the Himalayan region and place stress on local livelihoods by affecting agro-biodiversity, crop yield, cropping patterns and the species composition of forests. This paper reports findings of a survey of farmers into the role of agroforestry or ‘agroecological intensification’ for reducing climate change vulnerability. The survey was conducted in the Tehri-Garhwal district of Uttarakhand, a Himalayan State of India. Existing traditional agroforestry was found to provide ecosystem services to farmers at various scales ranging from the global to household level, contributing to the livelihoods and resilience of the farmers to climate change. The strategies of farmers for adaptating to climate change include adoption of agroforestry due to its diversified agricultural and forest products and services. The analysis suggests that policies should consider agroforestry as a tool for improving the livelihood and resilience to climate change of farmers.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biodiversity and Climate Change Division, ICFRE, Dehradun, Uttrakhand, India

    Rajiv Pandey PhD & Ajay K. Gupta

  2. Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences and Technologies, University of Salento, Prov.le Lecce-Monteroni, 73100, Lecce, Italy

    Roberta Aretano PhD

  3. HNB Garhwal University, Srinagar, India

    Dhanraj Meena & Bhuvnesh Kumar

  4. Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences, College of Arts and Sciences, Qatar University, P.O. Box 2713, Doha, Qatar

    Juha M. Alatalo PhD

Authors
  1. Rajiv Pandey PhD
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  2. Roberta Aretano PhD
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  3. Ajay K. Gupta
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  4. Dhanraj Meena
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  5. Bhuvnesh Kumar
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  6. Juha M. Alatalo PhD
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Rajiv Pandey PhD.

Additional information

Dr. Rajiv Pandey holds a PhD degree.

Dr. Roberta Aretano holds a PhD degree.

Dr. Juha M. Alatalo holds a PhD degree.

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Pandey, R., Aretano, R., Gupta, A.K. et al. Agroecology as a Climate Change Adaptation Strategy for Smallholders of Tehri-Garhwal in the Indian Himalayan Region. Small-scale Forestry 16, 53–63 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11842-016-9342-1

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