Traditional Farming in the Indian Himalayan Region: Preserving Agro-Biodiversity and Future Food Security

Globally, traditional agricultural knowledge has been established through careful examination of methods and practices, demonstrating ingenuity and tenacity of humankind. The Himalayan region of India is renowned for its unique and varied agroecosystems, which have been formed by centuries old traditional knowledge and methods. These diverse and tribe-specific traditional farming methods contributed a rich cultural and agro-biodiversity in the region. A wide range of traditional millet, cereal, vegetable, pulse and fruit varieties have dominated in these cultivation, that provide adaptations to extreme environmental events and climate change. However, increasing global food and nutritional demand is a major challenge for both present and future production systems. The variable climate, along with population growth, always raises demands and supplies of food. The Green Revolution increased agricultural production worldwide by employing high-yielding varieties, excessive amounts of inorganic fertilizer, high groundwater utilization and heavy machinery use. These advanced activities simultaneously cause negative environmental consequences by disrupting the production system, causing soil degradation and chemical runoff, which leads to desertification of cultivated land.. To achieve a sustainable cultivation system along with an expanded production system, a new sustainable green revolution is needed. This revolution can only be achieved by traditional knowledge of sustainable cultivation, which is mostly spread in remote and hilly areas of India, such as the Himalayas. The present chapter reviews and describes the unique traditional agricultural practices of the Himalayan region of India. This further describes the sustainable production potential and traditional cultivation techniques of these farming systems. It also provides a list of traditional knowledge of sustainable agriculture that plays a significant role in adaptation strategies as well as in designing a new policies for sustainable food production. Moreover, it attracts the global community with the prospect of enhancing the production of agricultural systems through the use of traditional practices. Heightened production will plays a significant role in climate change vulnerability assessments and policy frameworks for sustainable food production.