This case study explores climate change coping and adaptation strategies in an agriculture- dependent community in the Panchkhal Valley in Nepal that suffered from five years of drought between 2004 and 2009. Based on fieldwork and interviews in Panchkhal 2011–2012, it explores how drought, combined with an ongoing process of agricultural commercialization and intensification, lead to a situation of ‘double exposure’ for Panchkhal farmers. As a consequence, current development policies based on the intensification and commercialization of agriculture may both support and undermine climate change adaptation in important ways. For instance, access to markets and a monetary income facilitated coping and adaptation, while dependence on agrochemicals led to increased vulnerability and environmental deterioration at the local level. Furthermore, none of the reported coping and adaptation strategies were able to provide the agricultural system in Panchkhal with sufficient amounts of water during the drought. While community organizations and NGOs were reported to play important roles in facilitating adaptation and mediating support at the time of the drought, government support was regarded to be insufficient. Coping and adaptation projects were often launched by local level actors, but these projects were dependent on resources from other administrative scales for their realization. 'Scale brokers', organizations or individuals that are able to mobilize support from other scales, hence appear to be a critical part for realizing adaptation projects.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:uu-273786 |
| Date | January 2016 |
| Creators | Grandin, Jakob |
| Publisher | Uppsala universitet, Kulturgeografiska institutionen |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Uppsatser Kulturgeografiska institutionen |
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