FAO report on Indigenous Peoples’ food systems
- The report, titled 'Indigenous Peoples' Food System, Insights of sustainability and resilience from the front line of climate change', was released by FAO together with the Alliance of Bioversity International & CIAT.
- The report studied 8 Indigenous Peoples’ food systems in Amazon, Sahel, Himalayas, Pacific Islands and Arctic.
- FAO - Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
- CIAT - The International Center for Tropical Agriculture
- The report documented the unique capacity to conserve biodiversity and foster resilient food security and calls for recognizing land rights, and traditional practices by the Indigenous Peoples.
- Eight Indigenous Peoples' food systems are examined in depth and revealed to be among the most sustainable in the world in terms of efficiency, no waste, seasonality and reciprocity.
Key Points:
- Report gave warning of the increasing threats to these sophisticated food systems.
- These systems are at high risk from climate change, major infrastructure projects, and the granting of concessions that allow mining, commercial agriculture on indigenous people's territories.
- We need more effective and creative interactions between indigenous knowledge and scientific knowledge systems. This is the only way we will achieve the agri-food system transformation that the world needs.
- In the current COVID-19 context, Indigenous Peoples able to rely on their traditional food systems to generate food are coping better than other communities who rely on the market for their food needs.
India Specific findings:
- Khasi (Meghalaya):
- Main livelihood activities: Cultivation, gathering,hunting, fishing, cash crops.
- Major Changes:
- Rice has supplanted local staples (millet and pulses)
- Wild foods reduced in diet.
- Bhotia and Anwal(Uttarakhand):
- Main livelihood activities: Cultivation, livestock, gathering
- Mobile Practice: Semi-nomadic/Transhumance
- Major Changes:
- Reduced access to wild edibles
- Land degradation induced by climate change
- Reduced reliance on traditional medicine"