I would like to submit a possible theme for CFS activities for the biennium 2016-2017, again on behalf of the Mountain and Watershed Team at FAO.
We are proposing a future HLPE report on “Understanding food insecurity in mountains”.
Mountain peoples are among the world’s poorest and hungriest: in developing countries, a vast majority lives below the poverty line and an estimated 300 million people are vulnerable to food insecurity.
Crop growth is slower at higher altitudes and farmers often achieve only one harvest per year. In addition, soils in mountain areas are often leached and degraded and do not provide enough nutrients to growing plants. Traditional mountain diets are often limited to starchy foods and characterized by low dietary diversity. It is a sad fact that a gradient of poverty and hunger does exist: the higher the altitude, the higher the food insecurity.
Isolation not only limits the ability for mountain peoples to trade, but also limits income generation opportunities, thereby additionally undermining household food security. For many households, permanent or seasonal migration in search of complementary income has become an integral part of the livelihood system, often leaving women to manage the land. Climate change induced hazards such as storms, landslides and avalanches disproportionally affect mountain communities, disrupting infrastructures and access to production chains and markets.
So far, the dynamics affecting the life of mountain communities are not well known, and this has led to their marginalization or social and economic exclusion and under-estimation of indigenous knowledge, experience and economic systems.
An HLPE report on understanding food insecurity in mountains could analyze the current situation at a global, regional and national level, and provide recommendations for decision makers from a food security and nutrition perspective. The report could utilize the Mountain Partnership’s upcoming update of a 2003 FAO study that mapped vulnerability of mountain peoples trying to analyse the various dimensions of vulnerability through the lenses of exposure and resilience. The HLPE report would also be a way to address food insecurity in mountains in an integrated way, promoting coordination and collaboration across sectors.
Г-жа Petra Wolter