Human population growth in the developing world drives land-use changes, impacting food security. In India, the dramatic change in demographic dynamics over the past century has reduced traditional agricultural land-use through increasing commercialization. Here, we analyze the magnitude and implications for the farming system by the introduction of cash-cropping, replacing the traditional slash and burn rotations (jhum), of the tribal people on the Meghalaya Plateau, northeast India, by means of agricultural census data and field surveys conducted in seven villages. Land-use change has brought major alterations in hill agricultural practices, enhanced cash-cropping, promoted mono-cropping, changed food consumption patterns, underpinned the emergence of a new food system, and exposed farmers and consumers to the precariousness of the market, all of which have both long- and short-term food security implications. We found dietary diversity to be higher under jhum compared to any of the cash-crop systems, and higher under traditional cash-cropping than under modern cash-cropping.

No abstract

No abstract

Using data collected at the village level, the present paper examines the socio-economic determinants of temporary labour migration in West Bengal, a state located in Eastern India. West Bengal is thickly populated with a high man-land ratio and characterised by high level of rural unemployment, underemployment, or disguised employment constituting an ideal condition for out-migration. The information, including several demographic and socio-economic factors, has been collected from the field with the help of household schedules prepared for the purpose. Out of a total of 756 households residing in the sample villages, 185 male migrant households were randomly selected. The field survey was carried out during March-October, 2019. The study revealed that the propensity to migrate was far greater among the younger males compared to the middle and the old aged. It was also found that more males from the socio-economically deprived landless classes such as the scheduled caste and the scheduled tribe households migrated out in larger proportion. Frequent occurrence of drought, however, acted as a trigger to the landholding households too to resort to temporary migration as a coping strategy. Higher wage rate and regular work availability at destinations constituted the pull factors attracting males to migrate even from the non-drought affected villages.