Koraput District, a Globally Important Agricultural Heritage System

Koraput District, the site of WASSAN’s Multi Actor Landscape Platform for Agroecology (MAP), is one of only two Globally Important Agricultural Heritage Systems (GIAHS) in India; designating 104 different systems in 29 countries, the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN defines GIAHS as:

“living heritage systems inhabited by communities that maintain an intricate relationship with their territory. These evolving and resilient systems are characterized by remarkable agrobiodiversity, traditional knowledge, invaluable cultures, and landscapes, sustainably managed by farmers, herders, fisherfolk, and forest people in ways that support their livelihoods and food security.”¹

GIAHS provide a counterexample to the global unsustainable agrifood system by highlighting traditional knowledge closely adapted to local systems to manage resources and promote biodiversity; to support these systems, the FAO provides technical assistance, stimulates markets, advances capacity building, promotes policies and incentive environments, and documents and promotes the value of traditional agricultural knowledge.²

Koraput, a hilly district located in South Odisha in the Eastern Ghats, is also one of India’s 112 Aspirational Districts; these districts are identified as the most underdeveloped regions in the country that the government grants special focus to for effective transformation.³ Koraput is over 50% Adavasi with a literacy rate of 49.2%, significantly lower than the national average of 73%.⁴ Even more, many households are reliant on self-subsistence farming supplemented by livestock and non-timber forest products (NTFP) such as fuel, construction, and medicine; as a result, many households in Koraput are vulnerable to food insecurity, especially linked to climate change. As a result, its GIAHS status recognizes the importance of protecting its biodiversity as a public good during its development process to valorize the work of the community as custodians of the environment.

Koraput’s Unique Agricultural System

Koraput is a hotpot of rice cultivation, home to over 340 landraces of paddy, 8 species of millet, 9 species of pulses, 2500 species of flower plants, and 1200 medicinal plants. Landraces are locally adapted, traditionally domesticated varieties of a plant. Given its extensive forested areas, the Koraput agroecosystem integrates small-scale farming with forest management. Sacred groves, or forest patches under the protection of local deities, have been an effective mechanism to preserve such biological heritage.

Threats to Community & Environment

Koraput is facing a multitude of threats to its biodiversity from climate change, deforestation, and mining; in the 1960s, Koraput was home to 1800 landraces of rice, down to 340 found today.⁵ I recently conducted semistructured interviews in Boipariguda Block, Koraput, to understand how climate change is manifesting in the community. Connecting observations of climate change (changing rainfall patterns, rainfall intensity, deforestation, and increased temperatures), the following “Climate Change Matrix” was generated to begin to understand the critical needs of the community to adapt to climate change, especially given its national importance as a GIAHS.

Major areas of concern include the reduced number of crop seasons, delayed cropping, germination failure, forest collapse feedback loops, and reduction in NTFP output, which create larger economic concerns such as increased costs and out-migration.

A Collaborative Effort

Given the urgency to protect the people and environment of Koraput, one of the MAP program anchor CSOs, M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF), requested the FAO to grant the District GIAHS status. In 2012, the FAO formally recognized the District, stating that this status would “enable rural families to derive economic benefit from their past and present contributions to conservation of genetic resources.”⁶ Today, the FAO works with community partners, including MSSRF and WASSAN, through the Technical Cooperation Project. Since its recognition, this collaboration in tandem with the State Government of Odisha has made significant progress to preserve both economic and environmental viability of the District, most notably the Shree Anna Abhiyan (formerly known as the Odisha Millet Mission). This government scheme promotes millet cultivation, prioritizing indigenous varieties of seeds that are both nutritious and climate-resilient, a first step to adapt to climate change in the region. To date, this scheme has reached over 19 Districts, 139 Blocks, and 172k farmers.⁷

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (n.d.). Globally important agricultural heritage systems (GIAHS). FAO. https://www.fao.org/giahs/en
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (n.d.). Background: Globally important agricultural heritage systems. FAO. https://www.fao.org/giahs/background/en
NITI Aayog. (2023). List of 112 aspirational districts [PDF]. Government of India. https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/files/2023-07/List-of-112-Aspirational-Districts%20%281%29.pdf
District Administration Koraput. (n.d.). District at a glance. Government of Odisha. https://koraput.odisha.gov.in/en/about-district/district-at-a-glance
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (n.d.). Koraput traditional agriculture, India. FAO. https://www.fao.org/giahs/giahs-around-the-world/india-koraput/en
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. (n.d.). Koraput traditional agriculture, India. FAO. https://www.fao.org/giahs/giahs-around-the-world/india-koraput/en

Department of Agriculture & Farmers’ Empowerment. (2023). 2022-23 Annual Report Odisha Millets Mission [PDF]. https://milletsodisha.com/uploads/files/publication/Annual%20report%202022-23%28%20Revised%2918_08_2023.pdf

Author

Joseph Edmundson

Joseph focuses on the intersection of environmental change and livelihood resilience in vulnerable communities. He graduated from Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service with a B.S in International Economics and minors in International Development and Mathematics. Most recently, he completed a Fulbright Research Grant in affiliation with the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi. He researched agroecological transitions in rural Assam with particular attention to economic feasibility and water management. Alongside this work, he contributed to research on dietary transitions as well as knowledge sharing in natural farming. During his grant year, he earned an Agroecology Certification organized by Welthungerhilfe.

As an undergraduate, Joseph researched the economic implications of India’s NGREGA program, investigated stakeholder impact evaluations of Maharashtrian infrastructure projects, and analyzed rural Indian moneylending risks. Immediately following his undergraduate studies, Joseph worked at Goldman Sachs in the Global Banking & Markets Division where he developed financial and economic expertise as well as voluntarily participated in nonprofit fundraising.

Joseph is eager to advance equitable models of environmental management, agriculture, and rural livelihoods with WASSAN, with a focus on the Commons and the needs of rural women, Scheduled Castes, and Tribal Communities. He plans to pursue graduate study in development studies.

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