Rural Livelihood Diversification in Flood-prone Ecosystem: The Case of Odisha

The study has examined the pattern and extent of income diversification due to distress factors by collecting data from 100 farmers of a flood-prone area of Odisha. The study has found that non-farm income contributed 65 per cent, while on-farm income contributed 30 per cent to the total income. Rice, which is the dominant kharifseason crop accounted for only 16 per cent of the total income. Across non-farm income sources, activities like construction, transportation, crusher labour, vegetable business, repairing works, shop-keeping, etc. contributed the highest share (29%), followed by salaried jobs (23%) and remittances (14%). The income inequality analysis has revealed that non-farm sources contributed more than 90 per cent of the inequality in income of different categories of farmers. The generation of more non-farm employment opportunities in the study area, development of tube-well irrigation and flood-tolerant rice varieties will help in increasing and stabilizing the income of farmers in the flood-prone areas of Odisha in the long-run. The government should popularize crop insurance in the flood-prone areas with enhanced subsidy premium to attract farmers, which will help in stabilizing farm income.