Challenges of Livelihoods in Difficult Tribal Regions: Understanding Markets
Underlining the fragile plight and future of the tribal people of the country, the article advises that the tribal community, its welfare and growth be included in the planning and implementation of development activities, schemes and projects
T he promotion of livelihoods in rural areas is centred, dependent and driven to serve mainstream markets or to grab a share of them. Rapid market integration and the opening of trade and investment frontiers to globalization are leading to a drastic transformation, often with brutal consequences. Markets today are complex, with advantages skewed towards big corporations with deep pockets, product/ technology domain expertise and are based on their attendant perceived standards. New forms of pricing, large volumes with short margins, technology innovation and market domination, including cartels, determine market entry, market share and profits. The market is increasingly controlled by big players; producers have little or no option but to serve the needs of these players and use their channels and are thus rendered powerless to negotiate.
Whereas economies are growing, the imbalanced income and earning distribution is leading to a stagnant demand. The worst-hit area is agricultural commodities, the demand for which is inelastic. Income opportunities for a large mass of people are declining due to technology because the focus is on higher productivity with lower manpower. With most people looking for livelihoods and employment incomes, purchasing power remains with a few, affecting those producing and offering demand-inelastic commodities. This inequality is being addressed by creating social safety nets using the Keynesian logic of putting money in the hands of the people. However, this does not solve the problem because the aim of Keynes was to manage the economic vicissitudes of capitalism and not to address its crisis origins or to widen livelihood opportunities
The focus in livelihoods promotion is, therefore, to supply or to add value to a product by going up the chain with a higher value offer for better price realization. For example, a farmer producing groundnuts may be asked to first take out the shell before selling it or to join a producer company to convert it into oil. Poor farmers offer generic goods at cost plus price, whereas companies earn higher margins through branding. Brands dominate the market and the buyer behaviour, leading to multiple approaches to price-based surplus extraction.