News

Achieving sustainable food systems in mountains

05.01.2024

The Mountain Partnership Secretariat (MPS) presented examples of successful interventions to support mountain farmers at the international conference "Enabling resilient and sustainable food systems in the Hindu Kush Himalaya" held 6-8 December 2023.

The Hindu Kush Himalaya region suffers from high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition, and local food systems are facing challenges with climate change, agrobiodiversity loss and outmigration. With 110 participants from 12 countries, the conference highlighted the challenges of migration and food insecurity, emphasizing the urgent need for equitable food systems in mountains.

The MPS is implementing projects that are addressing food system failures by supporting mountain producers through differentiation and diversification of their mountain products. Product differentiation helps mountain farmers compete with lowland producers by distinguishing the unique qualities of their mountain products, such as the traditional varieties they are safeguarding and the provision of ecosystem services that they are helping to conserve. Likewise, product and livelihood diversification with adequate marketing strategies can increase mountain farmers' resilience, especially by utilizing local markets.

Valeria Barchiesi, Project Operations Expert, MPS, said, "Farmers are at the centre of society and nature, particularly in mountain environments, where they manage natural resources and provide food for their communities. But farmers are also part of economic processes and are often marginalized, as the value of their products and their work is not recognized on the market. We need to act now to address the challenges faced by mountain producers."

In her intervention, Barchiesi presented the Business Incubator and Accelerator (BIA) for Mountains and Islands which is supporting innovative entrepreneurship in food, fashion and tourism value chains through grants, capacity development activities and tailored technical assistance. The BIA for Mountains and Islands, implemented by MPS in collaboration with the Global Environment Facility Small Grant Program , has already incubated over 100 organizations representing more than 37 000 small-scale producers in 10 countries.

Another initiative presented is the Mountain Partnership Products (MPP) Initiative, a certification and labelling scheme based on environmentally and ethically sound value chain approaches. The Initiative raises awareness of the uniqueness of mountain products through narrative labels and is promoting the first-ever network of mountain participatory guarantee systems. To date, 18 000 farmers from 8 countries have been supported by the MPP Initiative, 60 percent of whom are women, and 45 products have been granted MPP narrative labels.

Value addition initiatives have improved the market standing and economic viability of mountain products in India, Kyrgyzstan and Peru. Communication and marketing support combined with capacity development have boosted the brand position of coffee and honey products from India. The product packaging design now merges the aesthetics with the core values of the brand, capturing the elements of mountain landscape and the community while adhering to national food regulations. Value has been added to products in Kyrgyzstan through selling in a new local shop and through processing, such as drying and freezing mountain berries. Collaborations with a producer cooperative in the Peruvian Andes are addressing the extreme drought from the last several years and have led to investments in a new irrigation system that increases the quality and quantity of coffee. The coffee is expected to have a one point increase in the Coffee Cupping Score.

The international conference "Enabling resilient and sustainable food systems in the Hindu Kush Himalaya" was organized by the International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) in collaboration with the Government of Nepal and the Green Resilient Agricultural Productive Ecosystems project to bring together stakeholders from the Hindu Kush Himalaya (HKH) and to celebrate ICIMOD’s 40^th anniversary.