Factors Responsible for Livelihood Diversification of Unirrigated Farmers

Abstract

Livelihood diversification is the process by which households construct a diverse portfolio of activities and social support capabilities for survival and in order to improve their standard of living. Farmers were shifting their occupation from one to another because of several reasons. Hence, this study was undertaken with the objective to elucidate the factors responsible for the occupational change of agrarians. The study was conducted in the western zone of Tamil Nadu, with a sample size of 120. The samples were drawn by using purposive sampling method. The factors were collected from relevant literature, farmers, extension personnel and scientists and finally, the collected items were sent for the judge’s opinion. Based on the judges rating the valid items were selected and used for interview schedule construction. The information was gathered by using a pretested well-structured interview schedule. The respondents asked for responding to each and every factor based on the nature of influence. The calculated index score was ranked to identify the higher influencing factors for livelihood diversification of agrarians. Notable findings of the study were, production factors contributed vastly for agrarian’s livelihood change among all other categories either pushing or pulling the respondents.