Paper short abstract:

An empirically grounded analysis which highlights the differential coping strategies adopted by the smallholders in response to climate change to increase resilience to the food systems. It makes important contributions to scholarships on critical studies on intersectionality and vulnerability.

Paper long abstract:

Mountain communities are highly susceptible to climate change because of their dependency on climate-sensitive sectors and low livelihood diversification. Despite much research on climate change perception, adaptation, and policy implications, there is currently less evidence of the value offered by integrative approaches to capture the multidimensionality of underlying factors which affects food security and livelihood in the mountain region. The study was conducted in ten villages in two blocks of Tehri Garhwal district, Uttarakhand. Primary data was collected at the household and community level through 189 household surveys and six gender-disaggregated focus group discussions to understand the changes in food patterns and diet diversity. In-depth interviews were conducted with representatives of several socio-economic strata, and caste groups. Male and female responders make up 46 and 54 percent of the total. The study builds on vulnerability and socio-ecological approaches to examine the major stress factors for the local food systems and traces their interaction with climate variability, contextual vulnerability and socio-ecological changes to analyze the resilience and adaptive capacity of small/marginal farmers. The findings present an analysis, respondents perceive the risk and uncertainties similarly, though their responses to livelihood diversification differ based on social differentiation and vulnerabilities. The availability of coping mechanisms is impacted by socioeconomic differences in entitlements and resources. Gender, ecosystems and governance were the cross-cutting issues to understand the changes in land and agrarian relations, livelihood practices and, coping strategies. The study ascertains the barriers to adaptation by the smallholders to increase climate resilience in food systems.