Similar practices are reported from eastern Himalayan countries (See box 4). Communities in the Indian Himalayas are faced with erratic rainfall during spring and summer, which marks short growing seasons (2–5 months) and over-exploited sparse natural vegetation, unable to meet the energy and fodder needs of the local communities. Farmers in such areas have developed traditional agroforestry practices to ensure food security and additional income generation. Cultivation of bamboo groves in all agricultural holdings along the streams and irrigation/drainage channels in high rainfall areas of Sikkim (India) is an example of this. These bamboo groves provide multiple benefits to the local communities on maturity. Bamboo is extensively used in building small farm houses, goat sheds, pig enclosures, small baskets, and string making. Large bamboo pipes are used as water conveyers in the farm irrigation/drainage system. Bamboo leaves are excellent winter fodder for goats, and the stumps protect water channels from erosion. Box 4: Large cardamom based Agroforestry in Eastern Himalaya Large cardamom agroforestry has been a boon to the people of Sikkim for a very long time. It is widely cultivated under the nitrogen-fixing Himalayan alder (Alnus nepalensis), a practice modified by people to maintain soil fertility and increase productivity. The fruit produced is used widely as a spice/condiment and contains about three percent of essential oil rich in cineole. In the past three decades, this traditional agroforestry system has become so popular that the practice was scaled up through community exchange in the neighbouring countries of Nepal and Bhutan. It meets the adaptive requirements of mountain specificities such as inaccessibility by producing marketable products that are non-perishable; marginality by growing it on marginal lands belonging to the poor and indigenous peoples; fragility by providing forest cover and a perennial agricultural cash crop; and opportunities for increased income because is a niche cash crop. The economic benefits derived from large cardamom agroforestry in Sikkim reportedly increased gross income from 1.9 million in 1975-76 to 6.4 million US$ in 1995-96. The large cardamom agroforestry practice described is a perfect example of mountain landscape management in which both the ecological and economic aspirations of local, regional, and international communities are achieved (Shrama 2006). Water Resources Mandarin production in Bhutan is severely affected due to shortage of water during the flowering season. For example in 1998, the production of mandarin was greatly affected by the long dry spell which lasted from February to early June. To counter the effect of water shortage, bamboos are used for drip irrigation (as a modified version of polythene pipe drip irrigation). This is a low cost technology and requires minimum investment. Similarly, tribal farmers in Megahalya in northeast India developed a system to divert stream and spring water by using bamboo pipes to irrigate plantations. Farming communities in many high altitude villages in Indian Himalayas in Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh (Spiti area) have developed a specific irrigation system using kuls (diversion channels) to carry water from distant sources such as rivers and glaciers to the villages. Some of such kuls are 10 km long, and have existed for centuries. In the Andaman Islands of India, local communities use a pang (type of
13
grass) to line water tanks and irrigation channels to control seepage (UNFCCC 2007). Warabandi has been in existence as a traditional practice for equitable distribution of water resources for agriculture cultivation in Pakistan and India (See box 5). Box 5: Warabandi in Pakistan Traditional irrigation water rights are defined by a warabandi system, where water supply is determined by rotation and an individual's water allocation is measured by the time of water intake proportional to the size of farmland irrigated. Therefore, the traditional water rights are based on a time-equitable system. Water users are called "shareholders" in Pakistan since they hold time-share for the rotation system. In this way the water rights are linked with the farmland and cannot be separated from its land holding. Warabandi as an irrigation water allocation method has been practised in Pakistan and Northern India for more than 125 years, and covers an area of about 24 million hectares of irrigated land in the two countries. In the state of Rajasthan—a drought prone region in India—people construct small earthen check dams, called johads across seasonally flooded nalas (gullies) which also improve percolation and groundwater recharge. From 1984 till 2000 some 3000 johads, spread across more than 650 villages in the Alwar District, were revived. This has resulted in a general rise of the groundwater level by almost 6 m and a 33 percent increase in the forest covered in the area. Five rivers that used to dry up immediately following the monsoon, such as the River Arvari, have now become perennial. The “pangu” method is practiced widely in the Anuradhapura District of Sri Lanka and is based on the traditional system of sharing the work for cleaning and maintaining the irrigation infrastructure. Char (unstable alluvial islands) dwellers in Bangladesh build mounds and construct their dwellings to minimise damage from floods and plant katkin reed (Saccharum spontaneum) to protect chars from erosion (Srinivasan 2004). Besides stabilising the new land through fixing the fine fertile sediments, katkin reed also serves as an important fodder during monsoon season and fuel and building material. Rainwater harvesting, an ancient water conservation practice in South Asia, has a history of continuous practice of over 8000 years and is still used today. Rainwater harvesting was used as the glaciers retreated and climate fluctuated around 9600 BC. This adaptation method has been pivotal to the mergence and diversification of food production. Rainwater harvesting is still used in India today, even more so in response to recent climate extremes, demonstrating the resilience of human society to absorb shock, learn and build on historical adaptive processes (Pandey et al. 2003). Aquaculture Periphyton-based practices have developed independently and are used to catch fish in open waters in various parts of the world. In Bangladesh it is called katha. Similar practice exists in many parts in northeast India. Most households in such areas have multi-purpose ponds that are used, among other things, for bathing and sanitation, irrigating fields and gardens, and for growing fish and rearing ducks. The fish is consumed by the families as well as sold to earn additional cash income. In order to
14