Factors Affecting the Involvement of Tribal Youth in Agricultural Livelihood Activities in Dindori District of Madhya Pradesh, India

Abstract

In tribal areas mode of livelihood is different among different population but all category of people is dependent on agriculture for their livelihood directly or indirectly, fully or partially,. There are some groups of people who could not reached at the stage of agriculture, they are still miles away from agriculture and pastoralism. The Baigas of Central India are recently forced to practice settled mode of agriculture. Before they were practicing shifting cultivation, they had various mode of livelihood. They still enjoy their traditional mode of livelihood, i.e. hunting and food gathering in the deep forest. They are also fond of fishing. Many tribal youths are faced with difficulty of maintaining livelihoods and consequently, poverty remains exist among them. The importance of income generating activities to tribal livelihood cannot be over-emphasized. This paper examines the factors influencing involvement of tribal youth in agricultural income generating livelihood activities in Dindori district of Madhya Pradesh, India. Purposive multistage random sampling was used to collect data from 250 respondents, majority of respondents had medium mass media exposure with medium urban contact for income generating activities. There was significant relationship between involvement in agricultural income generating activities and socio-personal-economic, psychological and communicational attributes of the respondents. Therefore, it is recommended that when developing and planning programmes aimed at enhancing tribal youths' livelihoods, the government and NGOs should take into account all agricultural income-generating activities that tribal youths engage in as well as the aforementioned factors influencing their involvement.