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Diversification and Livelihood Options: A Study of Two Villages in Andhra Pradesh, India 1975–2001

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/7203/
 
Title Diversification and Livelihood Options: A Study of Two Villages in Andhra Pradesh, India 1975–2001
 
Creator Deb, U K
Nageswara Rao, G D
Rao, Y M
Slater, R
 
Subject Agriculture-Farming, Production, Technology, Economics
 
Description The diversification of rural livelihoods is the subject of a growing amount of conceptual and policybased
research. This paper reports on the findings from a re-survey and longitudinal panel survey
carried out in the villages of Aurepalle and Dokur in Mahbubnagar District in Andhra Pradesh,
India. This is a particularly valuable data source since these villages have been surveyed at intervals
by ICRISAT since 1975 and have enabled an analysis of changing rural livelihoods over time.
Agriculture remains the most important source of livelihood in both villages, though the relative
importance of crop cultivation has decreased, as has real income from crops. Agriculture has
become an increasingly risky pursuit and households have sought other sources of income, most
notably through migration for agricultural labour in other villages or for wage labour in urban areas
such as Hyderabad.
Whilst there are a small number of cases where diversification has enabled households to lift
themselves significantly above the poverty line, the overwhelming experience of diversification is
as a coping strategy. Mahbubnagar District experienced drought in 1997–8 and between 1999 and
2001. The intervening years were characterised by only average rainfall. It remains to be seen,
therefore, whether the diversification into non-farm activities is a short-term response to adverse
agricultural terms of trade and ecological uncertainty brought about as a result of extended drought
or whether diversification represents a long-term move away from agricultural livelihoods in rural
areas that will be sustained. The prospects for a return to agriculture in the future will be diminished
if population density continues to rise and limited by the gradual erosion of agricultural assets, such
as land and large livestock like cattle and buffalo.
The findings from this re-survey of two villages raise important policy challenges for government
and other stakeholders in Mahbubnagar District, in Andhra Pradesh and in the semi-arid tropics of
India more generally. Whilst government policy and state interventions are made along sectoral
lines, household livelihoods are highly diverse. Policy-makers need to reflect on the most suitable
ways of supporting this diversity, for example by facilitating access to the assets that people draw
on to diversify or by ensuring that agriculture is less risky and agricultural assets are not eroded
during periods of uncertainty. Only with more appropriate policies that recognise the importance of
diversity will it be possible for more people to make positive exits from poverty through
diversification.
 
Publisher Overseas Development Institute
 
Date 2002
 
Type Monograph
NonPeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/7203/1/Diversification_WP-178_2002.pdf
Deb, U K and Nageswara Rao, G D and Rao, Y M and Slater, R (2002) Diversification and Livelihood Options: A Study of Two Villages in Andhra Pradesh, India 1975–2001. Working Paper. Overseas Development Institute, London, Uk.