Linkage between crop and livestock farming in tribal areas of Tamil Nadu

A study was undertaken to identify the linkage between crop and livestock farming in tribal areas of Tamil Nadu by collecting data from 900 tribal farmers of six hilly areas of Tamil Nadu. The data were analysed and linkage coefficient was calculated for forward and backward linkages between crop and livestock farming. The results revealed that the backward linkage between livestock and crop farming was observed to be high when compared to the forward linkage between the crop and livestock farming. The factors like vegetable cropping, reduced supply of by products and crop residues, animal ploughing due to uneven shape and surface of land, less market value for dung, etc. favoured the crop-livestock linkages in the hilly areas of Tamil Nadu. It is the need for the hour to take necessary steps for improving the forward linkage i.e. increasing the supply of animal feed and fodder in order to increase the co-efficient of forward linkage atleast at the level of backward linkage for improving the strength and longevity of linkage between the crop and livestock farming.