Measuring Farmers’ Livelihood Resilience under Climate Stress: Evidence from Semi-Arid Rajasthan

Abstract

Climate variability and recurring droughts pose persistent challenges to agricultural livelihoods in India's semi-arid regions, requiring comprehensive assessment of household resilience. This study develops and executes a Farmers’ Livelihood Resilience Index (FLRI) to evaluate livelihood resilience among agricultural households in the Jaipur and Ajmer districts of Rajasthan through which primary data were collected from 150 farm households using a multistage random sampling framework. The FLRI incorporates five dimensions: food resilience, income resilience, asset resilience, institutional and natural resource buffers, and adaptive livelihood strategies. The findings reveal that the overall livelihood resilience in semi-arid Rajasthan was moderate (FLRI = 0.563), with pronounced inter-district heterogeneity. Ajmer demonstrated significantly improved resilience (0.658) compared to Jaipur (0.513) largely due to enhanced asset protection and a more vigorous adoption of adaptive livelihood strategies. Food and income resilience continue to be fundamentally weak in both districts, despite extensive access to public food assistance, finance, and irrigation, signifying ongoing consumption and income instability. The significant prevalence of livestock loss constitutes a major limitation jeopardizing long-term resilience. Livelihood strategies were the primary determinant of resilience, emphasizing the importance of household-level adaptation decisions over the access to basic resources. The findings highlight that livelihood resilience in semi-arid regions was determined by strategy driven yet limited by assets. Policy implications indicate a necessity to transition from access-focused interventions to fortifying asset protection, stabilizing agricultural incomes and augmenting adaptive capacity via targeted extension services, climate-responsive insurance, and investments in water management and integrated crop-livestock systems to ensure enduring livelihood security.