Abstract ID: 3.11874 | Not reviewed | Requested as: Talk | TBA | TBA

While there is a rich body of gender, natural hazards, and displacement literature for the Global South countries, the literature on the food security and nutrition of tribal and/or indigenous communities in the Mountain and Hill regions remains opaque. Hill and mountain regions have been reported to be highly climate-vulnerable and food insecure. At the same time, they are home to many indigenous and/or tribal communities and host a wide range of crop biodiversity. These societies cut off from the mainstream population primarily due to complex topography and limited mobility, have evolved their traditional techniques of producing and meeting their nutritional requirements. Based on an estimation of dietary diversity among the Ao-Naga tribe in the eastern Himalayan foothills of Northeast India, in this paper we argue that food policies principally aimed at enhancing food security indicators, need to adopt transformative lenses by promoting dietary practices of the local tribes. Utilizing data from 404 households in Mokokchung district, the research compares dietary habits between urban and rural areas. Our preliminary analysis indicates that rural households have higher Food Diversity Scores (FDS) due to greater consumption of nutrient-dense traditional foods, such as organ meat and insects. Conversely, urban households show increased consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPF) and food away from home (FAFH), both of which are positively correlated with higher household income and education levels. The study highlights the complex relationship between socioeconomic factors, dietary diversity, and health outcomes in tribal communities, and necessitates the need for developing evidence-based food policies with more mixed-method research on mountain food systems in the Global South.