Livelihood Diversification Scenario in Hill State, Meghalaya: Impact and Determinants

Abstract

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.

Rural Livelihood Diversification Among Tribal Communities of North-Eastern Region of India: A Systematic Review

“…For example, in Sikkim, one of the North-Eastern states dependent on mountain agriculture, every household has a diversified livelihood and high share of non-farm income (Sharma and Mistri, 2017). On the contrary, a study by Dympep et al (2018) on livelihood diversification in Hill State of North East, Meghalaya, found that instead of depending only on farming activities, households in this region adopted mixed farming which encompasses crop production and animal husbandry as their sources of income. Marchang (2019) observed in his study that the occupational, employment and source of livelihood of ST population have changed from agriculture to non-agriculture in the NER; however, it is not uniform across the NER states.…”