Increasing Climate and Community Resilience: A Case Study of the Cooperative Farming System in Garhwal Himalaya, Uttarakhand

By: Davis Clark, April 25, 2023

Planting a Seed

I took my first trip to India in 2017 after studying abroad for a semester in New Zealand. I spent about three weeks in northern India, mostly in Rishikesh, but made one seemingly small decision that would be life changing. I really wanted to see the great Himalaya mountains so I asked around in Rishikesh where I could go to see them. I was told about a place not too far away called Kanatal. So, I made my way up on a public bus and once I was dropped off, I was immediately impressed by the views of the snowcapped peaks in the distance (pictured above). However, there weren’t many places to stay. The few places were expensive mountain lodges, and as a young backpacker I had the tightest budget imaginable. As it began to get dark, I started walking along the road looking for a place to stay. I had nearly given up hope and was looking for a spot to lay my sleeping bag in the woods near the road when a lonely car came down the road. The driver asked where I was going and after telling him I had no place to stay, he welcomed me in and gave me a ride to his home and offered me a place to stay.

This man’s name is Ranjit Mangat and through his generous offer of a place to stay, we developed a friendship. We loosely kept in touch over the next five years and he invited me to come back and work on his farm in Meerut, or to work with the farmers in Kanatal on building a cooperative group. This work interested me and once I entered the Masters in Environmental Management (MEM) program at Western Colorado University (WCU) in Gunnison, Colorado, I decided to try and make this dream become a reality. My advisor suggested I apply for a Fulbright to get funding to make this my second-year master’s project. So, I jumped through all the necessary hoops and to my surprise and joy, I received a Fulbright-Nehru Student Research award for the 2022-2023 grant year. The pieces were coming together, but I had so much ahead of me to figure out.

Nourishing the Seedling

I arrived in New Delhi on August 21, 2022 and joined 17 of my fellow student researchers for an orientation organized by USIEF. It was all so exciting and surreal to be there, surrounded by so many highly qualified academics, prestigious titles, intimidating achievements and big-name institutions under their names. I felt some serious imposter syndrome, like I was the least qualified or impressive academic in the room. After all, I was just a climbing and ski bum that lived out of his truck in Colorado. How did I end up as a Fulbrighter in India? But I soon realized it doesn’t matter how I got here or all the prestigious titles I have (or haven’t) collected. What matters is what I came here to do, and to make the most of the opportunity I was given.

Since I was awarded the Critical Language Enhancement Award (CLEA), I spent the first three months studying Hindi (mostly online) at the Landour Language School in Mussoorie. This was challenging for many reasons. First, I didn’t know a lick of Hindi coming into the program. Photo: The Landour Language School teachers and students in December 2022.

Second, per the grant requirements, I was supposed to focus on learning Hindi and limit my project work to a minimum, which wasn’t popular with my academic advisor. And lastly, learning over Zoom is not very fun for anyone, and I found it particularly difficult considering the poor and unreliable internet connection./p>

My host affiliation was with Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Garhwal University (HNBGU) in Srinagar, Uttarakhand. Many people confuse this with the Srinagar in Jammu and Kashmir, which I’ve never been to, and have to frequently tell people, “no, not the Srinagar in J&K, there’s another one in Uttarakhand”, which not everyone knows about. I picked this institution purely by geographical location. When I applied for the Fulbright, I was hoping to expand on the existing partnership that my home institution, WCU, has through the sister cities program in a town called Majkhali in the Almora district of Uttarkhand.

Me with the Department of Rural Technology Faculty and Staff

Srinagar and HNBGU seemed conveniently between Kanatal and Majkhali and had a Department of Rural Technology that seemed like it would fit my project goals well. So, I reached out to the Head of the Department, Dr. R. S. Negi, who kindly accepted my request and happily obliged to be my academic supervisor during my Fulbright research program.

So, what exactly is this project?

Well, I planned to work with Ranjit and the community of Kanatal to help develop a framework for a farmer cooperative that focuses on individual, climate and community resilience. However, once I arrived and began interviewing NGOs, farmer groups, and community members, I learned that the existing farmer cooperative models such as the Self-Help Groups (SHG) and Farmer Producer Organizations (FPO) already support and promote individual, community, and climate resilience. Furthermore, there was already an NGO in Kanatal working with about 15 SHGs.

Above: SHG Management training in Kanatal run by Himmotthan Society, the local NGO that assists SHGs

So, it seemed like my project goal was already completed. This was a hurtle for me to get over and required me to pivot and reorganize the way I thought of my project. Instead of helping develop a new cooperative group or framework for a farmer cooperative, I looked at the current existing framework, learned about their challenges, and produced a set of recommendations based on my knowledge, experience, and observations. Below is a summary of the project scope, methods, and findings.

My project investigated the farmer co-operative landscape in the Garhwal Himalayas of Uttarakhand. The focus of the study was to understand how farmer co-operative systems can improve the livelihoods, resilience, and overall wellbeing of farmers, communities, and the environment of Uttarakhand.

Above: Interviewing an SHG about their challenges and practices

Through interviews with Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), government agencies, local farmers, and farmer co-operative groups, information about the supporting programs, challenges, and needs of rural farmers in the Garhwal Himalaya was gathered. This information was used to produce a set of recommendations focused on agricultural practices that promote ecological sustainability and improve economic returns. The findings and recommendations from this project will be implemented and utilized by the community sponsors in a rural farming community in the Tehri Garhwal district of Uttarakhand, and the local NGO, Himmotthan Society, in this community. However, these recommendations were designed to be utilized by smallholder farmers and NGOs that work with farmer co-operative groups on rural community development across Uttarakhand. This project contributes to the resilience of Himalayan mountain communities by bringing expert knowledge from biodiversity farming and agroforestry training courses and incorporating it with the traditional ecological knowledge of the Garhwal communities in order to build on and improve the existing farmer-led co-operatives and increase the individual, community, and ecological resilience of the rural farming community of the Garhwal Himalaya.

The primary research questions that were addressed in my study were:

1. “How can farmer co-operative systems improve the livelihoods, resilience, and overall wellbeing of farmers, communities, and the environment in Uttarakhand, India?”
3. “How can the farmer co-operative system of Uttarakhand be improved to better prepare farmers for adapting to climate change?”

And so, what did I find?

I interviewed five NGOs that work with farmer cooperative groups across the Garhwal region, particularly women-led cooperative groups. What I learned is that there are already many organizations, government agencies and assistance programs in place, working to increase the climate and community resilience of the communities in the Garhwal Himalaya primarily through the farming cooperative models of Self-Help Groups and Farmer Producer Organizations. These farmer cooperative systems receive assistance and opportunities for subsidized programs from government agencies like the Uttarakhand State Horticulture Department, NGOs like Himmotthan Society, Appropriate Technology India, Navdanya, Mount Valley Development Association, Himalayan Action Research Center, and many more not interviewed in this study.

Above left: talking to farmers about their challenges and practices. Above right: an SHG garden with an aquaculture pond supported by the National Rural Livelihood Mission.

Below left: learning about the State of Uttarakhand Horticulture Department Apple Mission project which provides subsidy to farms to establish apple orchards. Below right: learning about apiculture- or beekeeping- in the Garhwal context.

Below left: learning how to prune apple trees for the high density model promoted in the Apple Mission. Below right: visiting a local NGO in the Garhwal region.

Programs for improving climate resilient agricultural practices such as extending improved seed varieties at free or half cost, promoting earlier planting of key crops like potatoes and peas to adapt to changing monsoon patterns are promoted by both government and non-government organizations. Other programs in the areas of agriculture, education, health, entrepreneurship, and skill training, are extended to SHGs across the Garhwal region. Training and assistance with producing, marketing, and selling value-added and alternative agricultural products such as honey, mushrooms, and silviculture, is a key component to helping farmers diversify their income.

Above left: polyhouses help protect against wildlife and extend the growing season through the winter months. Above right: a 22,000 Liter rainwater catchment, these structures are subsidized by government programs and NGSOs and significantly help farmers adapt to the changing monsoon patterns.

The shared savings and loan accounts of the SHGs contribute to financial and economic autonomy, women empowerment, livelihood improvement, community collaboration and resilience as well as individual wellbeing. These micro-credit accounts help bring benefits to all seven forms of capital: financial, human, social, built, cultural, natural, and political. By encouraging community members to stay, work, build community, invest in sustainable agriculture, promote biodiversity, and develop the skills and economic activity of the community, farming cooperative systems influence all these forms of capital, and if developed and utilized properly, can increase each of them over time.

Although there are shortcomings and restrictions to the SHG and FPO models, they largely serve to the benefit of their members. Other potential solutions for increasing individual and community resilience in the communities of the Garhwal Himalaya include utilizing live fencing techniques as an option for addressing wildlife pressure on agricultural land, utilizing traditional rainwater harvesting methods, mulching, and drip irrigation methods to mitigate the challenges associated with the lack of water resources, connecting the traditional agricultural economy with the newer rising ecotourism demands of the region, and improving upon the existing organic and biodiverse agricultural practices to include more homemade products, underutilized food crops, intercropping, and cover cropping techniques.

The communities across the Garhwal region are traditional subsistence farming communities, and over the last few decades they have been plagued by an on-going outmigration, draining the skills and labor of the rural youth, while diminishing the cultural, social, and human capital of the communities. An over reliance on agriculture as the primary source of economic activity can be to the detriment of these communities. Expanding off-farm opportunities that encourage employment of local residents and attract outside visitors is an imperative direction of development for these communities. Thus, the expansion of eco and agritourism such as homestays and restaurants, as well as connection to local and distant markets for organic and specialize mountain products will help bolster the rural economy. Farming cooperative groups and systems can play a key role in this stage of development through their skill training in financial and document management, group and community collaboration, knowledge of agricultural products, access to assistance and capital from NGO and government programs, production of organic and specialized farm products, and connection to local, regional, and outside markets.

Picking Fruit

I’ll be leaving India in mid-May after presenting my project findings and report to both my home institution- via Zoom- and my host institution in-person in Srinagar. So now that I’m at the very end of my project, I can look back at my time as a Fulbright-Nehru student researcher and try to gather some themes, lessons, and perspectives from my experience.

There are so many things that I did and learned and experienced over the last nine months that it's hard to wrap my mind around it all. I’ll be learning and growing from this experience long after I leave India. There is no doubt that I was challenged and grew personally, academically, and professionally.

Most Fulbright student researchers aren’t simultaneously completing a master’s degree or enrolled in graduate course work throughout their time as a Fulbrighter. In the fall of 2022, I was taking graduate courses, which required very early mornings due to the time difference, in addition to my Hindi language training, and project preparation with my host institution. What my situation resulted in over the course of my project was being pulled in many different directions. I had requirements and expectations from my home institution which was more interested in community engagement and "getting something done”, from my host institution which was more interested in research, qualitative data collection and analysis, and writing a thesis report about my findings which my home institution does not emphasize or require at all, then of course the expectations of my community partners who I planned this project with, as well as my own, often lofty expectations of what I wanted to achieve.

Throughout the course of my project I struggled with imposter syndrome, feeling unqualified, inadequate, unsupported academically, and socially isolated. Luckily, these were challenges I didn’t have to overcome entirely on my own. In November, my partner flew to India and lived with me for the next five months. She gave as much mental, moral, and emotional support as she could, and I can’t thank her enough for her support and encouragement throughout my project.

The geographical isolation of my project location from other Fulbrighters meant I was the only student living in the entire region of Garhwal which made it hard to develop any relationships with other Fulbrighters. However, I tried to make friends with the locals, learn the local language, and spend my free time traveling around the region to see the popular temples, cities and tourist destinations. I felt like I really got the chance to immerse in the Garhwali culture and that is what the Fulbright program is really about- cultural exchange.

Ultimately, my growth from this experience is so much more than learning about the agriculture and cooperative systems of Garhwal. It pushed me to be more self-confident, self-reliant, patient, and helped improve my self-initiative, and perseverance. I’ll take my knowledge and experience of Indian and Garhwali culture back home and through the rest of my life, hopefully contributing to a greater mutual understanding of what it means to be a global citizen. With all that being said, I do genuinely hope that my interactions and engagement with the communities, farmers, and cooperative groups and the recommendations I gave them does good for their community, livelihoods, and health of their environment.

I feel it is important to include a note on my positionality as a westerner working amongst traditional farming communities. It’s hard navigating the positionality of a foreign researcher engaging with traditional communities and providing recommendations on how to improve their livelihoods. However, in my experience, I found that people were incredibly open, accepting, and interested in my perspective. I respect and understand that these communities have long lineages of deep traditional knowledge. I also understand they are going through severe challenges with migration, climate change, changing economic demands, and pressure from industrial-chemical agriculture. The only thing I can provide is an outside perspective, observations, and recommendations. What they do in their community, on their land, with their lives is entirely up to them.

How far will the apple roll?

So now that I’m at the tail end of my Fulbright grant, what’s next? How far will I go from the work that I’ve done here? Well, although I’ve finished the project component of my master’s program, I still have one more course credit to satisfy. So that means I’ll be back and enrolled in a course in the Fall to finish up my degree. After that, I’m not sure. I plan to go into the agricultural sector, and want to work as an extension agent, specifically working with farmers to promote regenerative organic and biodiverse practices and encourage community collaboration and farmer-led cooperatives. As of now, I see myself staying stateside for the time, perhaps looking at the state or local level ag-extension offices, but it’s always been on my radar to work for the UN FAO as a global agriculture extension agent. Who knows, maybe one day I’ll end back up in Garhwal, learning more from the incredible Garhwali people and communities that have so much knowledge about community collaboration, farmer cooperatives, and traditional agricultural practices. Whatever I do, they will hold a special place in my personal story, and for that I have the Fulbright-Nehru program, USIEF, and so many personal, professional, and academic contacts to give my deepest and most sincere thank-you to.

Big thank you to everyone who helped make this project happen! Photo: me and Ranjit at his homestay in Kanatal