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Livelihood Options In Rural India

Livelihood Options in Rural India: Performance of the Indian Dairy sector, Fisheries, Horticulture, etc.

Animal Husbandry:

  • In India, the farming community uses the mixed crop-livestock farming system (livestock sector alone provides alternative livelihood options to over 70 million small and marginal farmers)
  •  It provides stable income, fuel, transport, food, etc., to the family

Performance of the Indian dairy sector:

  • There has been a massive increment in dairy production over the last three decades
  • Because of ‘Operation Flood,’ the milk production in India has increased ten times between 1951 to 2016.
  • It is a kind of system where the farmers grade the milk produced according to the quality of milk, the grade of categorized milk is processed and marketed in the urban areas through cooperatives
  • The farmers also get a fair price for their milk supply and earn a good income from the urban markets
  • Some by-products such as eggs, wool, meat, dung cake, etc., are also given as much importance, and they are essential productive sectors for diversification

Fisheries:

  • In India, after moderate expansion in monetary assignments and the presentation of new advances in fisheries and hydroponics, fishing has made considerable progress
  • Fish production in terms of value is 65 and 35 percent, from inland and marine sources
  • In India, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Gujarat, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu are well known for fish production
  • People engaged in the occupation of fisheries face many problems like poverty, underemployment, low per capita incomes, etc
  • The government should increase the credit offices through cooperatives and SHGs for fisherwomen to meet their capital requirements

Horticulture:

Fruits, vegetables, tuber crops, flowers, medicinal and aromatic plants, spices and plantation crops, etc., are called horticulture crops. There is a wide variety of plants as India has variations in soil and climate.

  • These crops are of much importance for fulfilling food and nutrition, apart from addressing employment concerns 
  • The horticulture sector has much importance in the Indian economy, as it contributes nearly one-third of the value of agricultural output and 6% of the GDP of India
  • India is the leading country in producing a variety of fruits like bananas, mangoes, coconuts, cashew nuts, several spices, etc and ranks second as a producer of fruits and vegetables throughout the world
  • Improved economic conditions of farmers engaged in horticulture have been there
  • Some of the profoundly gainful work choices for females area in rural regions are blossom collecting, nursery upkeep, mixture seed creation, and tissue culture, the proliferation of soil products, and food handling
  • Enhancing its role requires investment in infrastructure like electricity, cold storage systems, marketing linkages, small-scale processing units, et

Other Alternate Livelihood Options: 

  • Information Technology can play a significant role in enhancing the creative potential and knowledge embedded in society, along with better predicting areas of food insecurity and weather vulnerability
  • Acting as a change catalyst, it can create many new opportunities in the village areas of the country