AN ANALYTICAL STUDY OF LIVELIHOOD DIVERSIFICATION AT FARM HOUSEHOLDS OF DIFFERENT ALTITUDE OF KUMAUN HILLS

Abstract

Agriculture serves as predominant activity for most rural farm households which offers a strong option for spurring growth, overcoming poverty, and enhancing food security. Livelihood diversification has generally occurred as a result of an increased importance of non-farm wage labour in household livelihood portfolio or through the development of new forms of on-farm/on-site production of non-conventional marketable commodities. Thus, the investigation was aimed to identify the livelihood diversification in different altitude of Kumaun Hills, Uttarakhand. The study is based on the findings from the data of 90 sample farm households consist of 30 low hill, 30 mid hill and 30 high hill farm households, selected through stratified random sampling for the agriculture year 2013-14. Simpson Index was utilized to examine livelihood diversification. In the study area, high hills livelihood diversification is found to be highest followed by mid hills and low hills. Findings of the study has suggested the need to develop education and skill development trainings to poor farm households in the hilly areas, it surely provide a positive impact on the ability to diversify their livelihood options.