Livelihood diversification is a norm in every economy, particularly in rural India, where farming alone rarely provides sufficient income. The study was conducted at Mawpran village in the hilly terrain, Meghalaya, India in the year 2017, with the objective to analyze the extent of livelihoods diversification among rural farm families, the impact of livelihood diversification and its determinants. Ninety respondents were selected by simple random sampling. The study found that majority of the farmers diversified from on-farm traditional crops to on-farm high-value crops (strawberry) while a majority of landless respondents had to do diversifying livelihood activities. Using the Wilcoxon sign rank test, it was observed that diversification had a significant impact on material possession and income level of the respondents. Diversification index was measured with the help of Simpson Diversification Index (SDI) and it conferred that fifty percent of the respondents belong to the high level of diversification (more than 0.43) and the average diversification index of the respondents was 0.32 which implied that the majority of the respondents had diversifying livelihood activities. Variables like education and cosmo-politeness were found to be significantly related to their degree of livelihood. Thus, diversification of livelihood is an important feature of rural survival and improving income level.
This paper analyses the performance of the value chain of Lakadong turmeric in the northeastern state of Meghalaya. It assesses the activities, value added, and prices received at each stage of the product's journey, from farming by producers to sale to consumers. The powdered form of Lakadong turmeric fetched a higher price, but farmers and processors sold their produce in the form of dry flakes because proper processing units, like dryers and grinders, are lacking. Many opportunities have been identified, and tapping these would prove useful in processing turmeric and generating employment in Meghalaya.
Aims: To understand the flow of information of Climate Smart Agricultural (CSA) practices among the farmers, the factors that impede this flow and the impact of the social network on adapting CSA practices.
Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted in hilly state, Meghalaya, India between August 2016 and April 2017.
Methodology: A sample of 120 farmers was selected from agriculturally vulnerable villages to climate change by snowball sampling. The villages were selected from two Agro-climatic zones (ACZs) of the state, Meghalaya. UCINET software was utilised for analysing the Social Network Analysis (SNA) of the community with the performance index used to measure the impact in adopting CSA practices.
Results: The network centralization index obtained in Tropical ACZ was relatively high (0.63) depicting a fragile social network as farmers relied on certain central actors for information and if these actors were to be removed, many farmers would be left isolated. However, in Sub-tropical ACZ, a low index (0.37) was attained implying that farmers had maximum connections in the network. Very low cohesion density measures (<0.05) was obtained in both the ACZs portraying a slow rate of diffusion of information on CSA in the farming community. Further, the homophily index of SNA indicated that the farmers tend to associate more with other farmers having similar socio-economic characteristics. The impact of the social networks in both of the ACZs were highest (68.30%) under low, and (63.30%) under the medium adoption levels of CSA practices in Tropical and Sub-tropical ACZs.
Conclusion: Hence improving access to climate information is an important step to improve the livelihood of people in such variable conditions. With a better understanding of the social factors that influence the flow of knowledge and the adoption of CSA practices in the agricultural sector, researchers and policy makers could be able to identify and reduce barriers to technology diffusion and adoption.
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