ABSTRACT
Tribal people are fraught with a number of constraints that operate at both individual and community levels. Tribal farmers in Gujarat, as in other parts of the country, face numerous production constraints such as uncertain and erratic rainfall, degraded forests, sloppy and hilly terrain, and thin fertile soil. These factors along with poverty and low capacity of investment; unavailability of inputs; inadequate knowledge about cultivation practices, improved variety of seeds and other inputs; and lack of proper markets, force tribal farmers to practise subsistence agriculture by cultivating traditional crops. The Green Revolution has, by and large, bypassed agriculture in tribal regions, thereby depriving farmers of new technology as well as markets. At the same time, natural resources like land and water have also undergone severe depletion, both in terms of quality and quantity. As a result, tribal areas face severe production constraints as compared to non-tribal areas in the state. This is often reflected by the productivity differentials across the two sets of regions within the state (Bose 1981). Another important factor influencing tribal agriculture is the strong link between forests and the tribal population, as the latter is largely dependent on forests for food, fuel and fodder requirements (Nair 2001; Saxena 2000). It is, therefore, imperative that the root cause of resource degradation in tribal areas should be addressed as an important component of the strategy for developing agriculture in tribal areas. As a thumb rule, enhanced and sustained productivity could be seen as directly related to regeneration of the natural resource base of the region.
