Vol. 12, Special Issue 10 (2023)

Author(s):
Parag Jyoti Neog, Pabitra Kumar Das, Laxmipriya Sonowal and Nabanil Talukdar

Abstract:
The present study was carried out to assess the Sustainable Rural Livelihoods of farmers in chronically flood prone areas. The study was conducted in the North Bank Plains Zone of Assam. In order to measure the sustainable rural livelihoods, Sustainable Rural Livelihoods index developed by Directorate of Rice Research, Govt. of India (2012) was used. The findings revealed that majority (82.79%) of the respondents belonged to the age category of 36 - 59 years. Majority of the respondents (31.97%) had formal education up to middle school level and there was no illiterate respondent in the study area. Majority of the respondents (79.51%) belonged to the nuclear family type and majority of respondents (70.49%) had small families (up to 4 members). Among the respondents, marginal farmers made up the majority (46.72%), followed by small farmers (45.90%) and no respondents were found in the medium and big land holding category. Majority of the respondents (76.23%) had medium net annual farm income (Rs.26,313 to Rs.61,851). Majority of the farmer respondents (81.15%) had ‘only cultivation’ as occupation. Findings revealed that that majority of the respondents had medium level of Human Capital asset (59.84%), Physical Capital asset (63.11%), Natural Capital asset (57.38%) and Social Capital asset (68.03%). The average Human Capital Index (HCI) score was 57.60, which was by and large of moderate strength and the average Physical Capital Index (PCI), Natural Capital Index (NCI) and Social Capital Index (SCI) score was 36.27, 20.36 and 30.75, respectively, which were by and large of lower strength, which contribute to their overall poor Sustainable Rural Livelihood Index (36.25) strength.