ABSTRACT
Tikri Village lies in the district of Varanasi, which is the home of the ancient and holy city of Banares, known in ancient literature as Kashi, venerated and inhabited by the Hindus, Muslims, Jains, and the Buddhists alike. Though Tikri is a large village and is near the urban agglomeration of Banares, the means of livelihood available to the villagers are limited mainly to agriculture, employment either as agricultural labourers or as employees in the service sector and as milk vendors. Generally, availability or non-availability of water determines cropping intensity, but with no such constraint apparent both in terms of rainfall received and irrigation facility in Tikri, it is intriguing as to why there has been so little diversity and intensity in crop cultivation. From a socio-economic perspective, the structural composition of the population of Tikri is remarkably self sufficient in skills: it has farmers, vegetable growers, milkmen, blacksmith, cobblers, fishermen, priests, oilmongers and the landed class.
