ABSTRACT
This chapter covers villages in the two states of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana, which offer lot of contrast in terms of culture, attitude, social environment, human capital, economy, ecology and natural resource base. It deals with analysis of people's perception on each critical issues, namely, livelihood and agroecosystems, farming practices, variations in cost of farming and the transition from ZEIA-LEIA-HEIA, changes in crop diversity. The chapter also deals with changes in agriculture and food security, constraints to agricultural production, gender equity and gender justice, pollution in relation to industrialisation and urbanisation, impact of pollution on health, coping strategies and people's perception of well being. The livelihood option exercised by a majority of the villagers, within the hierarchy of agroecosystems, is biased in favour of the fanning system. It has been commented that the induction of new-technology into agriculture has led to feminisation of work.
