Revisiting the Reciprocity of Human-Ecological Systems: Integrating Extensive Agriculture and Transhumant Pastoralism in the Northern States of India

Revisiting the Reciprocity of Human-Ecological Systems: Integrating Extensive Agriculture and Transhumant Pastoralism in the Northern States of India

India’s primary sector is characterised by the age-old practices of agriculture and pastoralism that have traditionally remained symbiotic in nature. However, these relationships are dwindling in the light of uneven development focus and increasing climatic hazards. The current mode of local development practices is directly affecting the overall environment while simultaneously increasing the vulnerability of the resource-dependent communities. Pastoralism, along with the agricultural enterprise that is expanding with the support of irrigation network, is recognised as a major community-based occupation in the northern region of India. Despite that, pastoralism remains highly neglected in policy circles, whereas agriculture persists to be the dominant livelihood source both in popular imagination as well as development planning. In such a scenario, the contributions of pastoralism to rural livelihoods remain undervalued and scantily discussed in the context of the Indian subcontinent.

Highlighting the emerging need for sustainable management of natural resources amidst pressing climate crisis, in the current paper we recentre our focus on significance of pastoralism in the region. We emphasize on the integration of crop-livestock production systems based on the traditional reciprocities observed among the transhumant pastoral and settled agricultural communities in the North Indian states. While reviewing the interdependence and practices of exchange between these communities, we conceptualise the complex human-ecological requirements that serve as a basis for such long lasting associations. It majorly includes the exchange of resources, knowledge, market and labour along with persevering sociocultural linkages. Based on such thematic understanding, we essentially aim at highlighting the need for a revival of integrated peasant-pastoral production system that carry an untapped potential for managing the emerging socio-ecological challenges by promoting sustainable sharing of resources between the two co-dependent communities.