Quantifying Farm Household Resilience and the Implications of Livelihood Heterogeneity in the Semi-Arid Tropics of India

The vast majority of farmers in the drylands are resource-poor smallholders, whose livelihoods depend heavily on their farming systems. Therefore, increasing resilience these smallholders is vital for prosperity. This study quantified household and identified influence semiarid tropics India by analysing 684 households. A capacity index was devised based composition food non-food expenditure, cash savings, feed reserves. ranged from 8.4 reflecting highly resilient households with access to irrigation characteristics, −3.7 limited low assets. were through multivariate analysis selected socioeconomic biophysical variables; heterogeneous livelihoods. Irrigated livestock rainfed marginal types had highest lowest mean score 0.69 −1.07, respectively. Finally, we livelihood strategies resilience. Household strengthened possession livestock, crop diversification irrigation. Low predominantly caused derived helps understand complexity resilience, will aid targeting technology interventions development.