Socio-economic analysis of villages in relation to aquaculture potential in Raichur district, Karnataka, India

Abstract

This is one of a series of 10 working papers produced as the first stage of a project to investigate the potential for integration of aquaculture into small-scale, farmer-managed irrigation systems in arid and semi-arid regions of India and Sri Lanka. This part of the project focused on Karnataka State, India, and the papers were produced as a resource for a stakeholder workshop, held in Coimbatore, 19-20 November, 1998. This paper presents a socioeconomic analysis of 4 villages in Raichur District, selected on the basis of the frequency of small-scale, farmer-managed irrigation water bodies as well as on socioeconomic characteristics such as caste composition and literacy levels. Village research was carried out using participatory methods such as semi-structured interviewing, wealth ranking, mapping, diagramming, and ranking and scoring of key parameters. The contents of the paper are as follows: Introduction - the need for social analysis in development projects. Methodology. Castes. Village characteristics. Local economy. Socioeconomic conditions in relation to potential for aquaculture. A list of references, 1 appendix, 12 tables and 3 figures are provided