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Chapter 19 rUral livelihoods

Any work that is done to earn money to live, is called a means of livelihood. Different

people have different means of livelihood, depending on—where they live, what skills
they develop and what kind of education they receives. Let us now see, what means of
livelihood are available to people living in the rural areas in our country.

They are classified into three categories :

1. Primary occupations, which relate to agriculture and farming and animal husbandry.
2. Secondary occupations, which are related to manufacturing units, self-employment, etc.

3. Tertiary occupation, which are service providing jobs like transport, communication,
banking, etc.

occuPations anD Professions in rural areas

The villagers of India are involved in their basic occupation—agriculture. Though earlier, there
used to be primitive methods of carrying on this process; but nowadays, due to innovative
methods, farmers are able to grow wheat, rice, lentils, vegetables, fruits and many other crops

in order to accomplish the challenging task of feeding them, families and the nation.
The farmers, based on the area of land possess, have been classified into four sections:

1. Landless Farmers : Some farmers do not have their own land for agriculture. They
work on the land of other persons. Some of them take land on lease and some of them
work on daily wage basis.

2. Small farmers : Farmers who have agricultural
land less than 2 hectares, are small farmers.
They cannot produce sufficient crop for surviving
their families.

Such farmers work on the field of other persons
or go to a city to earn more money. These small
farmers borrow money from moneylenders to Farmer
purchase seeds, fertilizers etc. In any case, if they are not able to return their money,
then their land is captured by moneylenders.

3. Middle Farmers : These are the farmers with the land area between two hectares to
five hectares. They mostly use common agricultural implements for cultivation and
harvesting. However, some hire tractors and threshers for planting and harvesting.

4. Large Farmers : Farmers, those have agricultural land more than five hectares fall
under this category. Most of these farmers employ other persons for cropping and
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