Equitable income generation through small ruminant farming: A case study in Tamil Nadu

A study was carried out to find out the income distribution in sheep farmers in southern districts of Tamil Nadu. The data was collected from 300 sheep farmers (100 in each district) in the drought prone southern districts of Tamil Nadu namely, Ramanathapuram, Sivagangai and Pudukottai. Gini's concentration ratio was used to find out the income inequality in different income groups of farmers. The analysis indicated that the agricultural source contributed more to inequality (0.25) followed by non-farm income contributing to income inequality with the Gini ratio of 0.20. Dairying was the third source in contributing to income inequality with the Gini ratio of 0.17. The sheep was the forth source in contributing to income inequality with the Gini ratio of 0.10, which indicated the usefulness of sheep farming in generating equitable income in dry land areas. The overall income inequality was 0.50.