Impacts of transition from agro-pastoral to sedentary livestock systems on ecosystem services and resilience to climate change in India, at watershed level

Drylands cover about 40% of Earth's land surface and are inhabited by more than two billion people, of which 90% live in developing countries. These regions are characterized by low rainfall and high evaporation, and hence have limited scope for crop production - making livestock production a vital livelihood activity. Livestock production systems in dryland regions have evolved based on the opportunities afforded by the natural resource base and are predominantly pastoral. Pastoral livestock systems function with limited natural resources, where mobility is the key strategy adopted by livestock keepers to survive and cope with constraints.

However, worldwide the demand for food, including animal source food, is increasing, driving policies in developing countries, to opt for transition of pastoral to sedentary systems. More than 80% of India consists of dryland regions, which host about 60% of Indian livestock. While livestock production is still to a large extent pastoral in these regions, India has witnessed widespread intensification of livestock production among others via introduction of imported breeds, during the past two decades. Although introduction of imported breeds in sedentary systems has improved livelihood security, standard of living, and food output, it might also lead to a reduction of ecosystem services of a specific region due to overuse of scarce water resources for water-intensive production. Climate change may aggravate the vulnerability arising out of this situation further. Since high input use is a key element of sedentary livestock systems, they are likely to get affected more by the negative impacts of climate change predicted in dryland regions by Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change {IPCC) than pastoral systems.

All ecosystems are embedded in watersheds, a geo-hydrological unit comprising of all land and water resources confined within a natural drainage divide. A watershed is not only a hydrological unit but also a social, political and ecological entity, which plays a crucial role in providing life support services to people living in it. Watershed development (WSD) is India's largest development intervention to improve productivity in the drylands. The various ecosystem services of a watershed such as fresh water, genetic resources, benefits from managing ecosystem processes, non-material benefits such as traditional knowledge/practices, social relations and services necessary for the production of food, including animal-source food, are critical elements to keep the communities and their dryland farming systems resilient. In view of this, the current PhD study proposes to test the hypothesis that "the transition of livestock production from agro-pastoral to sedentary systems has short-term advantages for a watershed but the long term benefits are limited through high resource needs impacting not only the watershed's ecosystem services but also the watershed's resilience to climate change." Hence the current PhD research will study the impacts of transition of livestock production from agro-pastoral to sedentary systems on both the ecosystem services of a watershed, and its resilience to climate change.

In view of the above the research objectives are:

1: Identify and describe livestock farming systems within a watershed and identify and explain the transitions across these systems in time.

2: Assess the impact of agro-pastoral and sedentary livestock production systems on ecosystem services provided by the watershed, i.e. food production, farm economy and knowledge systems.

3: Assessing the impacts of transition from agro-pastoral to sedentary livestock production systems on the watershed's resilience to climate change.

4: Develop recommendations for sustainable livestock production in a watershed context in dryland regions.