Community based adaptation measures of agriculture system in Himalayan Region of Nepal: a case study of Dhye village, Upper Mustang

The unprecedented global climate change (CC) has been negatively affecting livelihood of the residents of Dhye Village, Upper Mustang located at the Himalayan region of Nepal. CC had reduced flow in Hyulsa River which is the main source of water for local community and due to reducing trend of average precipitation of 0.52 mm/year, and increased evapotranspiration from the agriculture fields due to rising average temperature trend of 0.07 °C/year. This research had attempted to analyze the impact of CC on reduction of soil moisture on cropping and range land, and find out the best community based adaptation (CBA) measures on existing agricultural system in the sustainable manner. The supply and demand analysis of water using CROPWAT model showed that the water availability on Hyulsa River would not be sufficient for irrigation. The remote sensing analysis of landsat images depicted that land coverage of negative class of normal difference vegetative index (NDVI) and low temperature vegetation dryness index (TVDI) class would be increased and decreased, respectively. Therefore, it proved that vegetation was decreased due to decreasing soil moisture and increased drought in range land where animals were grazed. The demand and supply analysis of Dhye Khola (main source of water for purposed resettle location) showed that the available water would be sufficient for abstracting water even for next 50 years time period. Therefore, this research concluded that it was better to relocate the whole community to Chawale–Thangchung, as the best CBA measure against the adverse impact of CC.