Socio-ecology of land use planning in semi-arid regions

"Small farmer households try to adjust with the risks inherent in semi-arid tropical agriculture through several intra and inter Household Resource Adjustment (HHRA) strategies having significant bearing on the land use options which we will argue, differ characteristically for different classes of farmers in various ecological contexts. Intra-HHRA strategies include multiple cropping, land fragmentation, simultaneous operation in land-livestock -- craft -- labour markets, seasonal shifts in energy use etc. Inter-HHRA include operations in tenancy, credit, labour markets besides asset disposal, contractual livestock management etc. \n \n"Decision making options of farmer in one market cannot be analyzed in isolation of constraints and opportunities in other markets. Implications of above complexity for conceptualizing the logic of survival mechanisms evolved historically by small farmers and labourers in different ecological contexts of arid and semi-arid world have been invested to varying degree."