Demystifying vulnerability assessment of agriculture communities in the Himalayas: a systematic review

Agriculture communities in the Himalayas are disproportionately vulnerable due to the emerging challenges from climatic and non-climatic stressors. In this study, we systematically review peer-reviewed literature focused on vulnerability assessment of agriculture communities (n = 26) in the five Himalayan countries (Bhutan, China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan). We examine the yearly distribution, geographical scale, methodological approach, stress in consideration, indicators used, and assessment communication methods of the reviewed papers. Our findings indicate that vulnerability assessment of agriculture communities in the Himalayas is a recent practice, as all of the reviewed articles were published after 2007. About 62% of the assessments were conducted at local (household, community, and village) level, and few assessments at sub-national (19%) and basin (12%) levels. Indicator-based methods using primary quantitative data were most common (54%). Further, 90% of the studies addressed vulnerability to a single stressor with 50% of papers dealing with the vulnerability of agriculture communities to climate change and/or climate variability. From the analysis of the literature, it was found that multi-level, multi-stress, and comprehensive socio-ecological assessments were seldom attempted. Mostly the studies were done in isolated pockets and failed to identify the patterns of vulnerability. We advocate that to holistically understand the vulnerability-creating and differentiating mechanisms in agriculture communities, vulnerability assessment should adopt a multi-level approach by integrating both social and ecological determinants, firstly to identify the hotspots of vulnerability and then to deeply understand the root causes in the identified hotspots through integrated analysis.