Biswarup Saha

Livelihood Diversification Pattern among the Farmers of West Bengal

Based on research from Darjeeling and Uttar Dinajpur districts of West Bengal this paper presents evidence that non-farm and off-farm activities are carried out by a significant proportion of farmers and make an important contribution to livelihoods. The average diversification index in the study area was 0.46. Majority of the diversifiers had medium extent of diversification. It shows that there is a high involvement of farm women (24%) in diversification activities. Diversification activities make a greater contribution to cash incomes for poorer households. The study found that farmers from Darjeeling district are more diversified (52%) compared to Uttar Dinajpur district (39%). The reason might be that the scope and marketing in non-farm sector are higher in Darjeeling as compared to Uttar Dinajpur district. In Darjeeling district unavailability of land as well as unproductive land particularly in the hill and comparatively high cost of living also forced farmers to diversify into other sectors for their livelihood. Despite the vast potentiality to diversify the livelihood towards farm and non-farm activities in the study area, there were problems such as negative perception of the community, outdated method of production, lack of improved technology and skills, lack of business start- up budget and absence of market for the non-farm output. There are also lacks of potential researches to study the effect of non-farm activities on farm production and to identify the major problems that hamper the non-farm sector. State machinery should play a facilitators role in terms of promoting investment in infrastructure such as road, electricity, irrigation facility etc. more of a decentralized operations for government programmes, especially using the local institution for greater efficiency and better outreach.

Factors Leading to Success in Diversified Occupation: A Livelihood Analysis in India

Abstract Purpose: Livelihood diversification is a sound alternative for higher economic growth and its success or failure is conditioned by the interplay of a multitude of factors. The study of the profile of the farmers in which they operate is important to highlight the factors leading to success in diversified livelihoods. Design/Methodology/Approach: A total of 160 households of farmers were selected randomly and were interviewed to collect primary data for the study. To measure the success of diversified occupation a success–failure scale was developed following the steps used by Singh et al., ‘t’ statistics was used to compare the two groups. Discriminant function analysis was used to identify the factors determining success and failure in diversified occupation. Findings: The study revealed that 53% of the diversifiers were successful in their diversified activities. Around 62.50% diversifiers under the high success category were adopted non-farming nature of diversification along with farm diversification. Number of livestock holding, resource mobilisation potentiality, contact with extension personnel, distance from market, share of non-farm income, credit-seeking behaviour and dependency ratio were major characters discriminating successful diversifiers from unsuccessful diversifiers. Practical Implications: The paper would be useful for the researchers and policy-makers to assess and compare the livelihood security of different rural communities in the country. Originality/Value: The study was originally conducted by the authors. Nothing similar has been previously published or is currently under consideration for publication by another journal.

Smallholder Pig Farming for Rural Livelihoods and Food Security in North East India

Smallholder pig farming is an important livelihood resource for the poor and tribal people in India. However, the smallholder pig farms are faced with a number of problems. The present study thus aimed to build up the capacity of the smallholder pig farmers by some interventions on knowledge build up, pig variety replacement, shelter management and veterinary services in Tripura, a State of North East India. Two-stage stratified random sample survey on 178 smallholder tribal farmers using predesigned, semi-structured questionnaires was conducted to collect information before and after the interventions. The majority of the beneficiaries (83.71%) belonged to either low or medium income groups, of which 14.04% of the beneficiaries were the poorest group in the present study. After the shelter management and adoption of improved husbandry practices, a good and very good conditions in and around the pig shelters were recorded among 71.34% and 24.16% of the beneficiaries, respectively. Nondescriptive, local pigs (50%) were replaced by high yielding indigenous or exotic or crossbred pigs in the study area. Previously, 86.51% of the farmers reared pigs for fattening purpose, while 92.13% of the farmers practiced breeding of sows for piglet production after the intervention. The present interventions have brought significant impact (p<0.05) on rearing factors as well as socio-psychological factors. The implementation of ‘piglet production farming system’ augmented food security by 148 days.

Marketing channel vis-a-vis economic viability of ornamental fish cum aquarium business in Agartala, Tripura

Economic viability of ornamental fish business is utmost important as this sector has been identified as a powerful tool for rural income & employment generation. The study was conducted in Agartala, Tripura in the year 2015–2016 among 14 traders actively involved in ornamental fish business in Agartala. The data collected through observation, personal interviews with designed interview schedule as well as focus group discussion with the respondents revealed that majority of the respondents (78.57%) were young aged, all are literate and 28.57% of them were graduates. Around 42.86% of the traders considered aquarium business as their main occupation. Around 71.43% were doing retail business and 28.57% were performing as wholesaler-cum- retailer. Majority of traders (28.57%) earned between 3,60,000-4,32,000 per annum. Among the identified six different channels in ornamental fish marketing in Tripura, majority of the traders (64.29%) used to take benefit of marketing channel V due to the higher profit margin i.e., purchased ornamental fishes from the producers of outside state and used to sell directly to the consumers and/or to the retailers. Profitability analysis of the ornamental fish trading indicated that all the cases studied generated positive net returns. Payback period were very short i.e., 0.14 years and 0.29 years for wholesaler cum retailers and retailers respectively which reflects that the investment in the business of ornamental fisheries and aquarium is less risky as well as repaid in the shorter time period and is considered the better choice as investment or action costs are recovered sooner and are available again for further use.