Major constraints and challenges faced by the people of mountain in their livelihood system and future of sustainable development

a) Shrinkage of agricultural land:

• The actual pressure on agricultural land is much higher, thereby availability of crop land is too small to support livelihood of rural household in mountains.

b) Economic conditions of mountain people:

• Mountain people frequently faces the problems of political, social and economic marginalization and lack access to such basic services as health and education which in turn acts as constraints to food security and sustainable development.

c) Climate change, increasing natural , food and energy crisis, population growth, water scarcity, desertification, loss of biodiversity, degradation of ecosystem, migrations are the majorproblems and

d) Inaccessibility:

• The fragility of mountain ecosystem makes the impact of unsustainable development more severe and more difficult to correct than in other areas of world.
• Sustainable approaches to development are therefore particularly important and challenging in mountain region.

e) Natural processes:

• Mountains are greatly affected by destructive natural processes.
• When combined with human intervention particularly the construction of infrastructure and settlement in hazardous areas such event turn into disaster causing damage destruction injury and death.

f) Population growth:

• Due to population growth, the expansion of commercial agriculture and settlements and increasing urbanization has reduced the availability of arable land.
• This leads to less production and more food insecurity.

g) Inappropriate farming practices:

• Inappropriate farming practices and destruction of mountain forests aggravates the pressure on fragile mountain ecosystem.
• Ground cover is destroyed, soil is compacted and erosion accelerates, reducing soil fertility and increasing potential for natural hazards.