eChapters

Coldwater fishes exhibit enormous diversity and have great potential for generating livelihoods, mitigating poverty and unemployment. Coldwater fishery deserves attention for improving production by ensuring seed and feed supply. Other important issues in fisheries sector relate to marketing, value addition and farming. There is need to have separate action plan for low volume high values, and high volume low values fishes. Coldwater fishery sector can be strengthened using the available technologies such as hatchery and seed rearing, management protocol breeding and grow out protocols, fish specific feed formulations, exotic carp farming, and fish farming in polythene lined irrigation/ watershed tanks. The sustainable fishery development in hills requires attention on defining and granting appropriate ownership of resources, developing state of art infrastructure, initiation and implementation of fisheries conservation including focus on native and exotic species through enforcement of protective legislation. Strengthening of hill fishery education will play a central role. A “strength, weakness, opportunity and threat analysis” suggests an integrated approach by addressing the issues on genetic characterization and conservation, environmental impact analysis, development of niche specific aquaculture system, focus on post production and health management issues, implementation of demonstration programmes, enhancement of institutional capabilities, and development of human resources. Research areas relating to capture fisheries, culture fisheries, extension and transfer of technologies are also important.

Animal husbandry plays a vital role in the development of agriculture and is an integral component of rural economy especially in the hilly mountainous terrains of the country. Disasters, whether caused by unavoidable natural events or by avoidable, man-made events, always have been a part of human life. Hilly areas because of their geo-physical and climatic conditions are always prone to natural disasters like earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, cloud bursts and landslides etc. During the past few decades, disasters have killed millions of people and animals, adversely affecting the human and animal lives, resulting in substantial tangible and intangible losses in an unanticipated manner. Veterinary professionals by virtue of their strong scientific and technical competence play a pivotal role in human health by providing safe, wholesome and sound animal proteins which are valuable component in the prevention of malnutrition. Moreover, public health veterinarians are also actively concerned in protecting the environment by safe disposal of human and animal waste without adverse consequences. Thus, veterinarians always have a role to play in all stages of disaster mitigation and management; however the contribution of veterinarians will be most effective by integrating their expertise with other local, national and international groups and agencies involved in disaster management. In any country, funding for disaster relief should include veterinary management of disasters being recognized as a form of humanitarian assistance and a contribution to public health.

Yak is among the most remarkable domestic animals. It is adapted to thrive in the harsh environment of high altitude and sustains livelihood of highlanders. Yak is handicapped because of lack of veterinary assistance and declining pastoral biomass. Marketing facilities for yak-based products are limited and the production potential of yak husbandry is on decline. Dearth of locally available trained manpower and prevailing illiteracy are other hindering factors for development of yak husbandry. Research and development with focus on upliftment of yak husbandry and yak products are therefore important.

In spite of its importance, little has been done to assess interactions of climatic variability with productivity performance of different livestock species, sustainability of livestock production systems, livestock based livelihoods and application of science of climate change on small holder and subsistence livelihoods. The climate and its change affect all productive traits and physiological functions of farm livestock and related livelihoods. Heat stress is the most detrimental constraint to livestock production, particularly in mountainous regions. Introduction and selection for highly productive animals and breeds has increased their susceptibility to adverse impacts of climate change. It is necessary to incorporate resilience through selection and breeding for thermo-tolerance and development of adaptable breeds. Modifications in shelter designs and management of production facilities will also be helpful in mitigating adverse climate impacts on animal production and health. Modern animal husbandry practices that target increased per animal productivity allow efficient utilization of feed nutrients and increase returns from fewer animals. Livestock need to be looked for their immense contribution to nutritional security and livelihoods. A well designed livestock production system is among the best ways for sustaining and improving livelihoods and this chapter details the possible options.

Current and emerging animal nutrition, reproduction and health management technologies have the potential to improve efficiency of livestock production. However, the thermal stress or hyperthermia caused by elevated ambient temperature reduces feed intake, milk yield, growth rate and reproductive performance of livestock species. Livestock in tropical countries will be affected severely by the abrupt and fast-paced climate changes. The impact is not only on production traits, a number of animal species may become endangered. Many of the native livestock species still perform better under climatic stress and low-input conditions. It is necessary to catalogue the indigenous livestock genetic resources, elucidate their genetic make-up and regulation of key metabolic pathways of adaptation and productive attributes and using the inferences to develop strategies for utilizing livestock resources under climatic stress.

Use of insect-resistant varieties in integrated pest management is an economically and ecologically sound alternative to synthetic pesticides. A large number of germplasm lines of different fruit crops have been evaluated for resistance to pests, and a few genotypes with resistance to insects, mites and nematodes have been identified. The resistance of “Winter Majetin” apple variety against woolly apple aphid, Eriosoma lanigerum (Hausmann) was the first report of innate resistance to insect pests in fruit crops. Another successful example was the resistance to grape phylloxera, Daktulosphaira vitifoliae (Fitch), in which the susceptible European scions (Vitis vinifera) were grafted onto the resistant American rootstocks (Vitis labrusca) in late 1800s. Various leaf characteristics, such as hairiness, pubescence, thickness of veins, sponginess, stomatal density and fruit characteristics such as rough skin, have been reported to confer resistance to insect pests. High content of phenols, flavonols, potassium, calcium, and low carbohydrate and nitrogen contents have also been reported to confer insect resistance in various fruit plants. The germplasm has been screened against various pests under natural as well as artificial infestations. In apple, rootstocks (MM-series) resistant to woolly apple aphid have been developed. Molecular markers for three genes that confer woolly apple aphid resistance are located on two linkage groups (LG). Low infestation of the woolly apple aphid has also been recorded in Golden Delicious variety which incidentally is the most preferred host of apple fruit moth. The scab resistant apple selections, HCR21T200, HCR23T125, S80ER21T72 and TSR16T223 have also been found to be resistant to the European red mite, Panonychus ulmi (Koch). Peach varieties such as Flaming Gold, Stark Early Giant, Early White Giant and Flavour Crest are moderately susceptible to the peach leaf curl aphid, Brachycaudus helichrysi (Kalt.). Peach cultivar, Matchless has been reported tolerant to flat headed stem borer, Sphenoptera lafertei Thomson. Early maturing varieties of peach are reported to escape the fruit fly, Bactrocera dorsalis (Hendel) damage while Nemaguard, and Nemared rootstocks are resistant to important nematode pests. Almond varieties, Briggs Hard Shell, Katha 85, Ribba Selection and Tree No. 55 have been reported free from peach curl aphid infestation.

Resistance of some plants against a pathogen is due to their belonging to taxonomic groups which are outside the host range of the pathogen. Such resistance is called non host resistance. It is attributed either to genes for resistance (R genes) against the avirulence genes of the pathogen (true, race specific, cultivar-specific, or gene-for-gene type resistance), or to the plants escaping or tolerating pathogen infection due to various reasons (apparent resistance). There are two kinds of true resistance: partial (also called quantitative, polygenic, or horizontal resistance) and R gene resistance (also called race specific, monogenic, or vertical resistance). Several examples of true resistance attributable to, biochemical underpinning or genetic transformation of host plants of major fruit crops viz., apple, pear, apricot, plum, cherry, almond, mango, grapes, banana, citrus, papaya, guava and pomegranate against important plant pathogens are known. Much greater efforts need to be invested, however, for incorporating resistance to diseases in horticultural species because of their huge relevance to socio-economic well being of farming community of the hill regions. The effort in this chapter will be towards synthesizing information which officials of the administrative and development departments can use for drafting plans and policies for promoting protection and up gradation of livelihoods of hill farmers.

Temperate horticulture in Himalayan States forms the backbone of states economy by providing livelihood to more than 10 million people and draws about 60% of its Gross Domestic product (GDP) from the surrounding ecological resources. Being an important sector it has been given priority in recent years through various developmental programmes to harness the vast potential of natural resources, the topography, soil, climate and horticulture crop diversity. The outburst in climate and over population have become a major concern challenging natural resources of the Himalayan region for sustainable development of agriculture and improving livelihood of the local inhabitants. Depleting natural resources and vagaries of weather are negatively affecting long-term sustainability of Himalayan agri-horti production system. In spite of several chal-lenges the horticulture in temperate region has made some progress. The area, production productivity, availability and export of horticulture products have increased manifolds leading to improvement in employment and farm income. But still the temperate fruit industry is far behind and is facing the problem of low productivity and high cost production due to lack of elite planting material, old and senile orchards, rainfed farming, lack of efficient water, nutrient and canopy management, high infestation of insect and pests, poor transport and communication coupled with weak post harvest infrastructure. The modern new high yielding varieties and technological interventions developed especially the high density plantations; canopy & pollination management; fertigation, INM and water harvesting; cost effective and eco-friendly protection technologies and post harvest management and value addition have shown great potential to revolutionize the horticulture sector to bring paradigm shift from existing low quality lower productivity sector to high quality-higher productivity sector. The farmers have an opportunity and can take the advantage of emerging technologies in temperate horticulture to improve their nutritional and livelihood security.

Abstract

The Indian western Himalayas have wide variation in altitude, climate, soils, flora and fauna and socio-economic features. Livelihood options are limited due to small and fragmented holdings and inherent hill and mountain specificities. However, the physiographic and agro-climatic variability also offer opportunities of cultivating wide variety of profitable traditional and market oriented crops for exploiting niche advantage. Non-timber forest products play a vital role for livelihood security and demand that initiatives at local and governmental level are taken to develop and popularize technologies for collecting, processing and value adding to these products for commercial exploitation. Research and self help institutions are important in this context but strong regulatory policy framework is equally important. Further, need based and location specific trainings and demonstrations need to be organized to fill the knowledge void especially in traditional activities and emerging vocational enterprises. The national and international business concerns, engaged in exploiting natural resources such as hydro power and calcareous and limestone deposits should also engage more meaningfully in this task, under their corporate social responsibility (CSR) Livelihood generating scheme such as MNREGS should be extended to the non-conventional activities like weed eradication, management of wild (monkeys) and stray (cattle) animals that threaten livelihood security.

During his recent visit, US President Barack Obama pointed out that India is fortunate to have a youthful population with over half the population of 1.2 billion being under the age of 30. Of the 600 million young people, over 60% live in villages. Most are literate. Gandhiji considered the migration of educated youngsters from villages to towns and cities as the most serious form of brain drain adversely affecting rural India’s development. He, therefore, stressed that we should take steps to end the divorce between intellect and labour in rural professions.

The National Commission on Farmers (2004-06) stressed the need for attracting and retaining educated youngsters in farming. The National Policy for Farmers placed before Parliament in November 2007 includes the following goal: “To introduce measures which can help to attract and retain youth in farming and processing of farm products for higher value addition, by making farming intellectually stimulating and economically rewarding”. We are currently deriving very little demographic dividend in agriculture. On the other hand, the pressure of population on land is increasing and the size of the average farm holding is dipping below one hectare. Farmers are getting trapped in debt and, as real estate rates continue to rise, the temptation to sell prime farmland for non-farm purposes is growing. Over 45% of farmers interviewed by the National Sample Survey Organisation want to quit farming.

The pressure of population on land is increasing and the average size of a farm holding is reducing, to below one hectare. Farmers are increasingly getting indebted and the temptation to sell prime land for non farm purposes is growing. If there are other opportunities, about 40 per cent of farmers want to quit farming, says a survey conducted by National Sample Survey Organization. We hear deplorable stories of farmers ending their life not being able to cope with the loss and indebtedness from agriculture.
 
On the closer examination, we find that agricultural land is still a great source of income. But it is the practice of unsustainable methods, improper resource management leading to successive crop failure that makes agriculture non-profitable and risky. As a result, many young farmers are leaving agriculture and migrating to cities. Under these conditions, how are we going to persuade educated youth, including farm graduates, to stay  in villages and take to agriculture as a profession? How can youth earn a decent living in villages and help shape the future of our agriculture? At the same time, we also hear the stories of highly educated persons wanting to move into agriculture as their profession.
 
It is a well known fact that the recession had hit the Information Technology sector and the professionals across the globe in a big way. Some of them were ‘sacked’ and even thrown to streets as ‘loss cutting’ measures by the companies. Many qualified software professionals were forced to find an alternative job. But software professional, Sri. Kondana Chandrashekara Gatty, who was in the Information Technology field for nearly 10 years, did not feel the pinch of recession since he had switched over his carrier field from IT to agriculture. 

In order to portray the conditions of the migrated rural youth in cities, who otherwise would have been practicing agriculture, a few case studies were conducted to know more about the migrated rural youth, their family background, reasons for migrating, satisfaction after migration, type of support given to the family at the villages, assets created at their village and in the cities, types of problems faced, opinion about the environment, and willingness to go back to their villages for continuing farming. The sample included migrated persons engaged in different jobs in Bangalore city as Hotel workers, Construction Workers, Auto Drivers / Taxi drivers, Security Guards, Garment workers and Vegetable/Fruit Vendors. From each category, five respondents were interviewed by using a simple questionnaire. Following are the case studies.

I. Case Studies on Migrated Rural Youth Working as Building Construction Workers

1. Case of Sri Krishnappa : Muttanna, V.L. Madhuprasad and D. Nanjappa

Sri. Krishnappa S/o Saranappa, aged 30 years from Surapur taluk, Yadagiri district had migrated to Bangalore as a construction labourer. He had completed his primary education and got married at an early age. He has two sons and  two daughters.  After marriage, he continued to live in a pucca house along with his parents, one brother and two sisters.  The family has two acres of dry land, and  farming is main occupation. Desire to earn more money by him and non  co-operation among members of his family are the reasons for Sri Krishnappa’s migration.

1. Success Story of Rural Youth in Dairying
 
M.S. Nataraju, P. Sunil Kumar and R. Shashidhar

There is a proverb in Kannada that “Koti Vidyeginthaloo Meti Vidyee Yee Melu” means - among all the professions for livelihood on this earth agriculture is the best profession for better livelihood.  This proverb suits Sri. Vasudeva Indraje, resident of Yenmoor village in Sulliya Taluk of Dakshina Kannada Dist. in Karnataka State. Sri. Vasudeva Indraje is a role model for today’s youth, who are neglecting agriculture and migrating to cities with an illusion of making a quick buck.  Hailing from an agricultural family his moorings was in agriculture and allied activities.  After passing out from SSLC he did not seek to continue the studies but showed interest in pursuing some small business.  Along with his younger brother he started a cold drink house in Balila and made good profit from it.  When it appeared that the business was seeing a downward trend he came out of the business and invested the money in farming land.

Sri. Vasudev along with his friend visited RUDSETI, Ujire and enquired about the training programmes. After going through his interests Director suggested him to apply for Dairy and Vermicompost training programme.  Later, he was selected and undergone Dairy and Vermicompost training programme in the year 2007.  During his training programme along with the technical inputs regarding the Dairy management he also learnt about different soft skills like how to develop entrepreneurship competencies? How to develop Self Confidence? How to avail Institutional Credit? etc.

The silkworm chawki rearing is a vital stage in rearing as it has major influence on cocoon production.  Temperature, humidity and leaf quality are the three key important factors influencing chawki rearing.  Hence, maintaining these conditions at every step is very important and calls for provision of separate chamber. Any alteration in these factors will influence during later ages of silkworm rearing leading to crop losses.  Taking these factors into consideration the Government of India promoted the establishment Chawki Rearing Centres (CRCs) in private sector also.  These CRCs brush the silkworm eggs at one point under controlled conditions and distribute the worms to the needy farmers.
 
In recent years, bivoltine hybrids are becoming more popular in India and particularly in Karnataka.  This is due to the efforts of the Central Silk Board, Karnataka State Department of Sericulture and Japanese International Co-operation Agency.  These Bivoltines have high cocoon shell ratio (24 to 25%), better quality, fetches high cocoon price, better returns, high rendita (5.1 to 6.1) and raw silk percentage (20 to 22%) with filament length of 11502 to 12200 meters.  The farmers could achieve up to 70kgs cocoon yield per 100 Disease Free Layings (DFLs) and quality silk of 2A to 4A grade. 

In recent years, rainfall pattern is changing and the sustainability of irrigated rice ecosystem is threatened by water crisis. Tanks are often not filling or partially filling due to insufficient rains. In order to safeguard the food security, it is necessary to preserve previous water resources and to utilize the limited water most efficiently. In this regard alternate ways of growing rice using minimum water must be explored. Farmers are adamant to grow paddy crop to meet their domestic needs of food and fodder. In such situation Jalasri method can became one of the alternative for paddy cultivation. The Jalasri method is an appropriate system aimed at reducing the cost of cultivation, saving irrigation water, besides increasing grain yield significantly. Earlier Jalasri method was popular as Madagascar method of paddy cultivation.

It is now a fait accompli that for enhancement of the economic condition of the farmers, just growing of the variety of crops is not sufficient. Along with the crop husbandry, it is the need of the time that farmers must integrate other enterprises with traditional crop production practices. Integration of various farm enterprises in a farm ensures growth and stability in overall productivity and profitability. It also ensures recycling of residues, optimization of resources, reduction of risk and generation of employment. Various enterprises that could be included in farming system are agronomical crops, vegetables, fruits, flower cultivation, dairy, poultry, fishery, goat keeping, piggery, sericulture, mushroom cultivation, agro forestry, bee keeping, silviculture, agro-based industries and food processing. A judicious mix of enterprises complementary to crops and suited to the given farm situations and farmer’s preference would bring overall prosperity.
 
The Integrated Farming System (IFS)  is a complex inter-related matrix of soil, plant, animals, implements, power, labour, capital and other inputs controlled in part by farm families and influenced by varying degrees of political, economic, institutional and social forces that operate at many levels. Under farming system, the farm is viewed in a holistic manner. Farmers are subjected to many socio-economic, bio-physical, institutional, administrative and technological constraints. Integrated farming system conceptually is a set of elements or components that are inter-related with each other and which are interact among themselves.

Planning Research and Action Institute, Lucknow (1960) found that lack of initial capital considerably hindered the growth of Animal Husbandry Projects in Youth Clubs. It was also revealed that involvement of non-official agencies and training of youth organizers were very important for strengthening youth clubs.
Singh and Prasad (1963) identified that following deficiencies in the working of youth clubs.
    1.    Inadequate knowledge of youth club work on the part of members as well as on leaders
    2.    Non-availability of literature on youth clubs
    3.    Lack of active leadership‘
    4.    Rift between village youth clubs and village panchayat
    5.    Lack of proper guidance and follow up of youth club programme
Behniwal (1964) revealed the following factors as responsible for the successful working of youth clubs.
    1.    Strength of membership in a club 
    2.    Participation in project work
    3.    Participation in games
    4.    Frequency of meetings
    5.    Attendance in tours, rallies and games
    6.    Actual gains received  
Kumar (1965) found that in the successful clubs the youth had clear conception of the importance and objectives of the youth organization. 

Youth are the creative force potential and a strength symbol for every community. One of the hallmarks of the positive youth development movement is that it is built on a foundation of scientific research. In addition, youth development programs typically work through existing social organizations rather than focusing on individual counseling. The rural youth work of FAO over the years has made significant contributions to make the lives of young people from rural areas more productive and meaningful by strengthening the organizations which serve them. The needs and challenges of rural young people today are greater than they have ever been in the past. In most developing countries, youth make up well over one-half of the total rural population. Because of their number and potential impact, rural youth must be a major part of any equation dealing with immediate and long-term solutions to solving problems of food security and sustainable development. Rural youth living in rural areas get limited opportunities for educational attainment in village areas. Opportunities for vocational guidance are also limited causing them diverting towards non creative activities and for merely wastage of time. An investigation was undertaken to study the socio-economic characteristics  and leisure time activities of rural youth. The study was conducted in College Development Block comprising Hatkanangle, Radhanagari & Bhudargad Tahsils of Kolhapur district, Maharashtra. From the Tahsil, 10 villages were selected randomly.  From each village, nine rural youths were selected randomly. Thus in all 90 rural youth were finally selected for the study. 

The efforts to keep pace with the fast life are causing mental and physical tensions. Diversion and relaxation is needed for the revival of spirit and enthusiasm. Leisure is an unimposed free time, after the practical necessities of life have been attended to. It is the time spent in activities chosen by the individual rewarding for its own sake. Choice of leisure time activities may also depend on the regularity of free time. An activity performed during small amounts of free time may be different than the one planned for a large block of free time. The leisure activities have far reaching influence on the personality development of the youth. If these youngsters are trained to make use of their leisure time for productive purpose, their endless energies could be channelised into fruitful development work.

An investigation was carried out involving 120 rural youth from Kapasi and Mardasgaon villages in Gangakhed taluka of Parbhani district from marathwada region of Maharashtra state, to asses the leisure time utilization by rural youth.  The sample included 70 boys and 50 girls.

Profile of Rural Youth

Education : As regards the education of female youth is concerned, 30 percent of them were educated up to H.S.C. and S.S.C, level where as 20 percent of them were educated up to high school level and 10 percent of them were degree holders and educated up to middle school level.

Youth, as a concept, has been generally defined all over the world as a group of human beings who have reached the end of puberty but have not yet acquired the full rights and duties of adult life ( Friedman: 1971).  Undeniably, the youth constitute a vast reservoir of energy especially in underdeveloped countries including India. Out of the 120 crores population of India, those in the 15 to 30 age group constitute 50 per cent which means that 60 crore young people, men and women, are available for handling various tasks of development, local, regional and national.  Progress of the country depends on the participation and full involvement of all sections of people especially youth. Youth can make their constructive contribution to national development and through which society can benefit from the idealism and sense of dedication of youth. At the same time, they also benefit from their active participation in developmental activities. Since such participation increases their self esteem, give them a sense of identity and of being needed by society.  The human life passes through various stage such as infancy, childhood, adolescence, youth, adult and old. Out of these stages the youth stage is very crucial and dynamic in the life of an individual as from this stage individual starts assuming responsibilities in the life and learns practically the social rules by coming in contact with world outside the family.  Youth is the time of life marked by growth and development. It is the period between childhood and maturity. United Nation has defined youth as those young people within the age group of 15 to 24 years both inclusive. Youth symbolizes zest, idealism, dynamism, enthusiasm and energy.