Farming Based Livelihood Systems PDF

Farming Based Livelihood Systems Chatper-3: Livelihood: Definition, Concept and Livelihood Pattern in Urban & Rural Areas M. P. Parmar Assistant Professor & Head, Dairy Business Management Division,...

Farming Based Livelihood Systems Chatper-3: Livelihood: Definition, Concept and Livelihood Pattern in Urban & Rural Areas M. P. Parmar Assistant Professor & Head, Dairy Business Management Division, College of Dairy Science, Kamdhenu University, Amreli Livelihood is a ‘means to living’ A livelihoods comprises the assets (Natural, Physical, Human, Financial and Social Capital), the activities and the access to these (mediated by institutions and social relations) that together determine the living gained by the individual or household (Chambers and Conway, 1992). Sustainable livelihood: A livelihood is sustainable when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while not undermining the natural resource base. Rural livelihood diversification : rural livelihood diversification is defined as the process by which rural households construct an increasingly diverse portfolio of activities and assets in order to improve their standard of living.  “What is a livelihood”, “Making a living”, “supporting a family”, or “my job” all describe a livelihood. The term is well recognized as humans inherently develop and implement strategies to ensure their survival. The Sustainable Livelihoods Framework (SLF) views livelihoods as systems and provides a way to understand: 1. the assets people draw upon 2. the strategies they develop to make a living 3. the context within which a livelihood is developed 4. factors that make a livelihood more or less vulnerable to shocks and stresses What is Urban Livelihood? Urban areas, are defined as areas where modernization took place. These areas generally consist of an extensive population. Bangalore, New Delhi, Mumbai, Livelihood, on the other hand, is simply defined as the lifestyle of an individual or their occupation. Different Types of Urban Livelihoods  1. Urban livelihood of street workers In cities and towns, you might often come across several individuals working in the streets. For instance, ice-cream sellers, vegetable vendors, rickshaw pullers, These are recognized as self-employed individuals. Moreover, they don’t work in permanent shops. Their occupation is carries out from anywhere and anywhere. Majority of these workers briefly migrate from rural areas to earn money for a living and provide for their family.  2. Self Employed Business Clothe stores, cafes, medicine shops, and other such businesses are run by self-employed businesses. These are individuals that establish their own organizations. Several businessmen are even worth billions. Businesses categorized into the organized sector and unorganized sector.  3. Organized sector Workers Most of the urban livelihood falls into this category of working professionals. For instance, civil engineers, doctors, and marketing managers. They are bound to earn the maximum salary annually in the city. However, they don’t work on hourly wages like that of labourers. These workers have access to a wide range of perks, unlike the factory labourers. Some of these perks may be medical insurance, the company’s retirement plan, paid leaves; Due to this, these types of jobs are in extreme demand. Cities consist of the rich and the poor.  4. Factory workers: Urban livelihoods also consist of factory workers. These individuals aren’t formally employed. Due to this, briefly are categorized into the unorganized sector. While you know what is urban livelihood, factory workers are solely unofficially employed individuals for urban livelihood occupation. Occupation in urban areas is vast and comprehensive. Factory workers work at the convenience of the employer. They further earn a drastically small amount of income for the work they do.  RURAL LIVELIHOOD Rural livelihood is the engagement of rural population in various economically productive occupations. The hallmark of rural livelihood is agriculture and allied occupations. Major livelihood activities : Cultivation of food and cash crops, fish farming, cattle rearing, dairying, food processing, wood industries, etc. It can be seen that is a gradual and increasing urbanization and industrialization of rural livelihood. There are several emerging occupations in the rural livelihood. Emerging occupations : export oriented organic farming, horticulture, floriculture etc.  There is close connection and collaboration between rural and urban livelihood. Knowingly or unknowingly we are following an urban model of economic Development. While the government announces the smart city project we should not forget that new towns and cities emerge from developed villages every village is in a process of transformation to city there is constant rural areas, division of non-agricultural occupations in the rural and urban sectors is arbitrary and unreasonable.  Rural livelihoods as a source of income  Types of rural livelihoods: 1. Agriculture Labourers :Agriculture labourers are those people in rural areas who work as labour in fields and get daily wages. They comprise two-fifths of the total rural population in India! These labourers do not own land, thus are forced to work in the lands of richer farmers. Even if some labourers own land, it is extremely small and not enough for the family. These workers are sadly exploited by rich farmers, as they don’t have any alternative ways to earn money and they come in plenty as ‘cheap labour’ for the fields. 2. Farmers: This group consist of villagers who carry out farming activities in their own lands. They sow seeds, weed and harvest crops by themselves and also reap the profits themselves. However, eighty percent of these farmers also have very small house holdings and need to depend on other sources of income like having a poultry or dairy business. To earn enough money to barely survive, these farmers borrow money from money lenders for seeds, fertilisers, etc., and are at great risk of being in debt. This is why we hear of so many unfortunate news of farmers suicides in India. 3. Farmers with Other Sources of Income : The farmers who do not earn enough from their lands, or by working on other rich farmer’s lands need other sources of income. They work in mills near the farms or sell milk of the cows that they own. Selling other by-products like sap, collecting wood, leaves of certain plants, fruits, etc., helps them to sustain and survive. Some farmers also seasonally go to the cities or towns to work as wage earners as there is more opportunity to earn money in cities. 4. Rich Farmers And Landowners : The “rich” farmers that we have spoken about above are in very small percentage in rural areas. They are the ones who own most of the land and hire agricultural labourers to work for them. They are also the exploitative village money lenders and also generally own the nearby mills and small factories. 5. Other Service Providers Barbers, nurses, village teachers, etc., are small professionals who are found in villages. Some of them are self-employed and some are employed under government schools or hospitals.  Factors affect rural livelihood: 1. Personal factors : Most important factor in rural livelihood is personal interest and motivation.  The rural population is sincerely interested in continuing cultivation, dairying, cattle rearing, fish farming and other allied occupation. These occupations constitute the primary economic activity.  People show a gradual trend of shifting from primary sector to secondary and tertiary sectors of occupations. This shift is generally considered as sign of economic progress.  Government has to take measures to increase the personal interest, motivation, knowledge, skills and attitude of the people to turn towards primary sector and practice sustainable forms of agriculture such as organic farming, export oriented organic horticulture and floriculture.  There are highly profitable agricultural and allied activities which will in the long run, stabilize our economy and economic growth. 2. Social factors: Social factors constitute the demographic, gender, family, educational caste and class factors. Often the rural livelihood is not the matter of personal choice but a social options. there are traditional and household occupations, caste based occupations and socially imposed rural occupations in the agricultural and allied sectors. Government and civil society organizations have to take special care in dealing with these social factors. Positively, these factors provide which social stability and collective responsibility. Negatively they conflict with individual aspirations, interest, abilities, talents and motivation. Maintaining a judicious balance between social change and social stability is the most challenging task in dealing with rural livelihood 2. Economic factors  Inheritance of wealth and the land resources in the rural areas is an important factor in rural livelihood.  There is a vast majority of landless agricultural labourers who are engaged in rural livelihood options. They fluctuate between rural and urban livelihood seasonally.  Since most of the agricultural operations are seasonal by nature, they have no other option that shifting from one occupation to another.  Since they seldom own rural resources such as land and cattle they have limited opportunity in the agriculture allied engagements. They prefer to migrate seasonally to urban areas and engage in non-agricultural labour in the industrial and manufacturing houses. 4. Cultural factors: Cultural factors in the rural areas are mainly concerned which caste factors. Rural livelihoods for many are culturally determined and the individuals have limitations in the choice of a desired occupation. The government and civil society organizations have challenging task to deal with all the cultural factors that interfere with the people’s livelihood options. 5. Religious factors Religion is another important cultural factor which has significant influence upon rural livelihood. Religion sometimes interferes with the personal social and national interests and the civil agencies as well as the government face great challenge to deal with such religious forces while dealing with rural livelihoods. 2. Geographical factors Geographic factors include the type of soil availability of water distance from the sea and the height from the sea level. All these factors affect all the agricultural and allied activities. They are the major considerations while dealing with rural livelihood. Conservation of soil and water is the chief geographical consideration in the context of rural livelihood. 7. climatic factor Climatic factors include the possibility of monsoon rainfall, wind, cyclone or flood conditions, severity of winter and summer etc. Climatic conditions are related to geography of a particular village. Climatic conditions are often beyond human control and we need to adapt to such conditions. Rural livelihood options have to take due consideration of all the climatic forces. For example, the cropping pattern, rotation of crops and farming schedules have accordance with the climatic factors. 8. Ecological factors  Rural livelihood should not affect the ecological balance or endanger the environment. They should not pollute, water, air, and soil resources.  People need to engage in such economic activities that would protect the environment or inflict minimum damage to the natural resources.  From ecological perspective, tribal livelihood options are most eco- friendly and the urban livelihood options are the least eco-friendly.  Rural livelihood are sometimes eco-friendly and sometimes ecologically harmful.  Deforestation, soil erosion and water contamination (due to the use of pesticides) are often cited as harmful impacts of agricultural and allied activities.  Farmers need to be taught about organic farming and the ways and means to practice rural livelihood in harmony with nature.  Difference between rural livelihood and urban livelihood Sr. Rural society Urban society No. (Pre-industrial society) (Industrial society) 1. Life in the society was very simple Life in the city is not simple but very and reflected in the way of living, complex and complicated. dressing, food habits, and shelter and manners etc. 2 The people in the society had Different castes, creeds, religions and homogeneity and thus enjoyed more cultures, thus do not enjoy the same or less the same social status. social status. 3 Very little scope for occupational Occupational mobility is as well as mobility. frequent. 4 Here the family played a very In the cities hold of families is not strong, significant and predominant. and many functions which role. Its hold was very strong. 5 In villages there is no fast change In the cities there must be fast mobility and as such no necessity for social and adaptability to suit ever changing fast adaptability life.  Difference between rural livelihood and urban livelihood Sr. Rural society Urban society No. (Pre-industrial society) (Industrial society) 6 Culture was very deep-rooted. In the cities it is different to find pure Everyone loved culture and cultural culture. heritage above everything else. 7 In a rural society there is no In an urban community there is always division of labour. division of labour and specialization in job allotment. 8 Rural society did not give due and In urban communities women enjoys proper respect to the womenfolk. Comparatively high social status 9 People loved nature and natural In cities, people have no time to stand bounties. They were religious and gaze at the nature. they are not minded and afraid of gods and religious minded but more materialistic. goddesses 10 There were very few chances of The cities provide both incentive and providing employment and employment to the people incentives