Assessing Livelihood Security of Farmers Adopting Integrated Farming Systems: A Study in Nadia District, West Bengal

The present investigation assesses the livelihood security of the respondents who are mainly involved in practicing the Integrated Farming System (IFS) in various regions of Nadia District in West Bengal. The methodology used the ex-post facto research design. A seven-dimensional Livelihood security index was developed. The different dimensions identified were economic security, food security, social security, health security, educational security, infrastructural security and institutional security. Data were gathered from 80 farmers across eight villages in the district. Results showed that a low level of livelihood security index (LSI- 0.295) revealed that the occupation agriculture solely is not able to secure the livelihood of the farmers. This implied that intensification and diversification of farming enterprises played an important role in narrowing down the gaps between the socio-economic groups and remove the regional disparities in the livelihood security levels of farmers.