Understanding Livelihoods: complexity, choices and policies in Southern India:
A 15 minute video aimed to spark discussion of livelihoods issues

Introduction

Agriculture around Thiruchuli

Changes to labour relations

1. Introduction

Narrator 1: You can't put people at the centre of development, without understanding how they make their living. Rural people's livelihoods are as rich as complex as anyone else's. Understanding their reality means appreciating that everyone faces their own particular challenges, and that these might look very different from the inside than they do to an outsider. This video will demonstrate some of the complexities of understanding livelihoods by looking at a particular context and place: Development work in a rural area of Southern India

2. Agriculture around Thiruchuli

Narrator 2 Thiruchuli Panchayat Union is a small administrative area in the South of Tamilnadu. It is regarded as rural, with 85% of the workforce employed in agriculture, which depends on seasonal rainfall. Only a quarter of the land is irrigated and the irrigation systems are often poorly maintained. The region is drought prone which makes farming difficult and there is no guaranteed green revolution package that works to ensure productivity. Many farmers are failing in their own terms, and there is a sense of crisis about the future of farming in the district.

A Panchayat Union is the second tier of local government in Tamilnadu. Thiruchuli Panchayat Union has more than 75,000 (1991 census) people living on 42,785 ha of land.

The ‘green revolution package’ is the set of hybrid seed, pesticide, fertiliser, technology and irrigation that increased rice and wheat yields around the beginning of the 1970s. It fails to do so reliably in the rainfed agriculture around Thiruchuli because of the uncertainty of the water supply.

Interviewee 1 - FARMER

Farming is very difficult in the region. I come from a traditional farming family but I think this will come to an end with my generation – there is no more interest in agriculture. Production costs are increasing all the time, farmers often make a loss and they cannot afford to make much-needed investment in agriculture. All of this will lead to a scarcity of food crops in the region within the next ten years.

In focus groups and interviews, the despair and cynicism of many local farmers comes across very strongly. Farming is difficult in Thiruchuli, but at the same time is central to local culture, giving rise to a sense of crisis.

Narrator 3: The state government is responding to the agricultural problems of areas like Thiruchuli by spending money on over 140 programmes, ranging from poster campaigns to credit and subsidies. The bureaucracy needed to run all this is large and complex and sometimes the programmes contradict one another as development gets divided up into smaller and smaller chunks, split between different departments. There are also contradictions with field realities, when policy assumptions do not match what’s happening in the villages.

For example, there are separate line departments for agriculture, animal husbandry and horticulture.

At this point we wanted to introduce some of the ways in which the policy delivery system was complex, but in a way which does not match the complexity of the ‘local reality’

For example, the standard form in which the agricultural department keeps its crop records doesn’t recognise locally successful crops. This type of classification ‘leads away’ from local reality and doesn’t reflect the value that farmers produce from their land. Some important local products are ignored completely, like Velikaruvel, a fast growing, drought-resistant shrub.

This problem is more subtle than just Velikaruvel not appearing in the records. Four varieties of millet, which collectively cover 1400 ha are lumped together in one category in the records. Maize, which covers just 5 ha, has a category of its own. The suspicion is that this is because millet seed is not sold commercially and hence is not so important to the agriculture department, in spite of its local significance (It’s comparatively drought-resistant).

Interviewee 2 ERSKINE

Velikaruvel didn’t used to be considered productive by the official system and land where it grew was classified as wasteland. Now things are changing and it’s starting to be recognised that it is productive. Leaving the land with Velikaruvel is a livelihood option because it provides a regular income and there’s no need to spend money on it, whereas with a regular crop, you have to spend money on seed, fertiliser, pesticide, ploughing and labour.

Velikaruvel is Prosophus juliflora, which was introduced to the area for fencing sometime in the 1960s, and now covers vast swathes of the countryside, in areas once officially regarded as ‘wasteland’. It self-seeds and quickly springs up on any land left fallow.

Narrator 4: Velikaruvel is used for firewood, and can be burnt for charcoal. It makes industrial grade charcoal that gets shipped as far away as Bombay. Landowners make money from it without having to do anything, as traders will arrange for labourers to cut and process it. Velikaruvel is an option for individual farmers, but choosing to let it grow affects their neighbours too.

The purpose here is to show that this ‘woody weed’ is actually productive. Following sections then balance this with some of the costs of farmers allowing Velikaruvel to grow, building up a more complex picture than ‘grow’ or ‘don’t grow’.

Interviewee 3 ERSKINE

Farmers can grow Velikaruvel, but at a risk of losing their connection with the land. This plant draws up groundwater, even from neighbouring fields and destroys the fertility of the land. It strikes at the heart of traditional agriculture, because it alienates the farmers from their land.

The trade-off is that farmers can earn a guaranteed income from Velikaruvel every three years. Keeping their land free of it and practising agriculture may produce more income, but it requires considerable effort and entails significant risk of crop failure and indebtedness.

Narrator 5: Farming has always been a challenge around Thiruchuli, but farmers there have traditionally appreciated a need to stay close to their land in order to maintain its fertility. Now more and more are giving up and seeking other ways of life. What’s driving this change?