A Sustainable Livelihood Approach to

Poverty Reduction An Empirical

Analysis of Mizoram the Eastern
Extension of the Himalaya 1st Edition
Vishwambhar Prasad Sati
Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/a-sustainable-livelihood-approach-to-poverty-reductio
n-an-empirical-analysis-of-mizoram-the-eastern-extension-of-the-himalaya-1st-edition
-vishwambhar-prasad-sati/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...

Himalaya on the Threshold of Change Vishwambhar Prasad

Sati

https://textbookfull.com/product/himalaya-on-the-threshold-of-
change-vishwambhar-prasad-sati/

Sustainable Tourism Development in the Himalaya

Constraints and Prospects Vishwambhar Prasad Sati

https://textbookfull.com/product/sustainable-tourism-development-
in-the-himalaya-constraints-and-prospects-vishwambhar-prasad-
sati/

Reduction of the Pareto Set: An Axiomatic Approach 1st

Edition Vladimir D. Noghin

https://textbookfull.com/product/reduction-of-the-pareto-set-an-
axiomatic-approach-1st-edition-vladimir-d-noghin/

Balanced Phono Amps An Extension to the The Sound of

Silence Editions Burkhard Vogel (Auth.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/balanced-phono-amps-an-
extension-to-the-the-sound-of-silence-editions-burkhard-vogel-
auth/
An Overview of the SIGMA Research Project A European
Approach to Seismic Hazard Analysis 1st Edition Alain
Pecker

https://textbookfull.com/product/an-overview-of-the-sigma-
research-project-a-european-approach-to-seismic-hazard-
analysis-1st-edition-alain-pecker/

The Coinsurance Effect of Corporate Diversification: An

Empirical Analysis of the Accounting and Economic
Implications 1st Edition Dominik Nußmann (Auth.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/the-coinsurance-effect-of-
corporate-diversification-an-empirical-analysis-of-the-
accounting-and-economic-implications-1st-edition-dominik-nusmann-
auth/

Strategic Motivations of Inward R amp D FDI An

Empirical Analysis of the UK Osagie Igbinigie

https://textbookfull.com/product/strategic-motivations-of-inward-
r-amp-d-fdi-an-empirical-analysis-of-the-uk-osagie-igbinigie/

Ecological Migration Development and Transformation A

Study of Migration and Poverty Reduction in Ningxia 1st
Edition Peilin Li

https://textbookfull.com/product/ecological-migration-
development-and-transformation-a-study-of-migration-and-poverty-
reduction-in-ningxia-1st-edition-peilin-li/

An Empirical Analysis of Population and Technological

Progress 1st Edition Hisakazu Kato (Auth.)

https://textbookfull.com/product/an-empirical-analysis-of-
population-and-technological-progress-1st-edition-hisakazu-kato-
auth/
SPRINGER BRIEFS IN ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE

Vishwambhar Prasad Sati

Lalrinpuia Vangchhia

A Sustainable
Livelihood Approach
to Poverty Reduction
An Empirical Analysis
of Mizoram, the Eastern
Extension of the
Himalaya

123
SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science
SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science present concise summaries of cutting-edge
research and practical applications across a wide spectrum of environmental fields,
with fast turnaround time to publication. Featuring compact volumes of 50 to 125
pages, the series covers a range of content from professional to academic.
Monographs of new material are considered for the SpringerBriefs in Environmental
Science series.
Typical topics might include: a timely report of state-of-the-art analytical
techniques, a bridge between new research results, as published in journal articles
and a contextual literature review, a snapshot of a hot or emerging topic, an in-depth
case study or technical example, a presentation of core concepts that students must
understand in order to make independent contributions, best practices or protocols
to be followed, a series of short case studies/debates highlighting a specific angle.
SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science allow authors to present their ideas and
readers to absorb them with minimal time investment. Both solicited and
unsolicited manuscripts are considered for publication.

More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/8868

Vishwambhar Prasad Sati
Lalrinpuia Vangchhia

A Sustainable Livelihood
Approach to Poverty
Reduction
An Empirical Analysis of Mizoram,
the Eastern Extension of the Himalaya

123
Vishwambhar Prasad Sati Lalrinpuia Vangchhia
Department of Geography and Resource Department of Geography and Resource
Management, School of Earth Sciences Management, School of Earth Sciences
& Natural Resources Management & Natural Resources Management
Mizoram University Mizoram University
Aizawl, Mizoram Aizawl, Mizoram
India India

ISSN 2191-5547 ISSN 2191-5555 (electronic)

SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science
ISBN 978-3-319-45622-5 ISBN 978-3-319-45623-2 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45623-2
Library of Congress Control Number: 2016955079

© The Author(s) 2017

This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part
of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations,
recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission
or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar
methodology now known or hereafter developed.
The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this
publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from
the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use.
The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this
book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the
authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or
for any errors or omissions that may have been made.

Printed on acid-free paper

This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature

The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG
The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland
Preface

Socio-economic development and environmental conservation of the Himalayan

region have been persistent thrust of our study, continuing from the beginning of the
1990s. Overtime, we carried out several studies through undertaking projects from
the national research institutions and funding agencies and published over hundred
research papers and books. The present study mainly examines the approaches of
sustainable livelihoods to poverty reduction and caries both conceptual and
empirical studies. Mizoram state, lies in the eastern extension of the Himalaya,
constitutes one of the integral parts of north-east India. It has primitive economy.
Agriculture is the mainstay and the major source of income and employment.
Livelihood of people largely depends on the output from agricultural production.
Livestock farming and non-timber based forest products also support it. Mizoram is
bestowed with abundance of natural resources—land, forest and water, the life
supporting layers. Sociocultural entity of the state is varied and is quite different
from the mainland of India. On the above backdrops and keeping all these aspects in
mind, we conducted the study ‘a sustainable livelihood approach to poverty
reduction: an empirical analysis of Mizoram, the eastern extension of the Himalaya’
and the Indian Council of Social Science Research, New Delhi, funded it.
Poverty and malnutrition have become very common phenomena in the devel-
oping world where food supply is insufficient for the vast growing population. The
areas where this situation exists include the part of South America, Africa and
South and South-east Asia. These areas are socially backward and economically
underdeveloped, where agriculture is the main occupation and a major source of
income for the majority of people. Similarly, most of the mountainous regions
of the world are worst affected by poverty and malnutrition. Agricultural practices
in mountain regions are the major economic activities, characterise traditional
cultivation of crops which is insufficient to meet the food requirement of the people.
Sustainable livelihood approach, therefore, becomes a significant tool to poverty
reduction and attaining food security.
India, an emerging economy of the world, suffers from the menace of poverty
and malnutrition as about 40 % people live below poverty line. Although, it obtains
a huge reservoir of natural resources in the forms of the vast fertile agricultural land,

v
vi Preface

forest, water, precious minerals and power resources yet, it could not utilize them
sustainably, mainly due to lack in proper development approach and scarcity of
technological advancement. Further, disparities in economic development in all the
Indian states are profound that can be seen in the spatial perspectives and they are
influenced by geographical location and the availability of infrastructural facilities.
Mizoram characterises underdeveloped economy and practices traditional sub-
sistence agriculture as about half of the total population of the state is involved on
it. Further, shifting cultivation dominates agricultural pattern, obtains a maximum
proportion of arable land and is the major socio-economic activity of the native
tribal people. However, output is insufficient and thus, food insecurity situation
exists.
Population distribution in Mizoram is sparse. The urban and rural settlements are
located on the hills and ridges, as the people of Mizoram like to reside on the top
of the hills, and it is one the indicators of their social status, as the term ‘Mizoram’
itself denotes the land of the highlanders. Urban population is higher (51 %) than
rural population and population density is 52 persons living per km2. Social status
of women and men is equal and their number is almost equal in the total population.
Further, social structure of Mizoram has largely been influenced by the western
culture and women also participate in all the family affairs including
decision-making. Church plays a greater role in the social integration and trans-
formation. About 83 % populations, including all ethnic Mizos, (2011) is Christian.
It was a disturbed area during the long-lasting movement of the Mizos for statehood
(the 1960s). After emerged as a full flagged state of Republic of India in 1985,
Mizoram has become India’s peaceful state.
The landscape is mountainous. Structured hills, valley fills and flood plains form
it and constitute the panoramic landscapes. Tourism may obtain a prominent place
in economic development and may enhance livelihoods. Diversity in faunal and
floral species further accelerates livelihood options, if they are harnessed optimally
because the economic viability of biodiversity resources is high. Water resource
availability is enormous. There are many perennial streams and rivers that originate
and flow from the state. Climate, in the whole state, is very feasible. Average annual
temperature remains about 23 °C. Intensity and frequency of rain is high that occurs
mainly during the monsoon season and stretches for about six months from May to
October. Winter, mainly four months—November, December, January and
February remain dry and moderately cold.
Infrastructural facilities are poor. Difficult terrain and unavailability in financial
resources are the main constrains in development processes, as the state charac-
terises fragile landscape/ecology and underdeveloped economy. A large part of the
state is remote. Transportation facilities are lagging behind. Lacking in educational
institution, banking, energy sectors and others are the main hindrances for
socio-economic development, leading to poverty and malnutrition.
Sustainable livelihood approach is the key driver to reduce poverty in the
countries, which characterise poverty and malnutrition. It comprises of the five
livelihood assets—natural, human, financial, physical and social. Availability and
use of these assets optimally will lead to sustainable livelihoods. This study
Preface vii

illustrates potential of assets and applies them in Mizoram context for livelihood
sustainability and poverty reduction.
A geo-empirical analysis of land resources and livelihood assets was carried out
to conduct this study. A case study of 16 villages lie in eight districts of Mizoram
was carried out, and the household level survey (random sampling) was conducted.
Further, a structured questionnaire was constructed and questions were framed on
the various socio-economic and livelihood aspects. Secondary data on natural and
human resources were also collected for assisting and enhancing the study. We used
a set of qualitative and quantitative approaches to elaborate the gathered data and
applied a participatory rural appraisal after rapid field visits.
This study is unique in the field of sustainable livelihoods in Mizoram and other
areas where the similar socio-economic and geographical conditions exist.
Livelihood options are mainly related to and obtained from agriculture and forest
products/resources. We elaborate livelihood patterns and socio-economic devel-
opment of the study villages and suggest several measures to develop method-
ologies for livelihood sustainability and poverty reduction. This study supports the
researchers, academicians, farmers and all other stakeholders who are involved in
rural development.
The Indian Council of Social Science Research (ICSSR), New Delhi, funded this
study. We acknowledge our sincere thank to ICSSR for the support, otherwise, it
was merely impossible to conduct the study. We thank Dr. C. Uday Baskar Rao for
his valuable support. We are thankful to the Department of Geography and
Resource Management, Mizoram University for providing basic facilities. We also
thank the people of 16 villages for their cooperation in providing household level
information. Finally, we thank the almighty for all—courage, strength and peace of
mind.

Aizawl, India Vishwambhar Prasad Sati

Lalrinpuia Vangchhia
About the Book

The book ‘A Sustainable Livelihood Approach to Poverty Reduction: An Empirical

Analysis of Mizoram, the Eastern Extension of the Himalaya’ presents a holistic
methodology and analyses livelihoods of people living in the hilly and rural areas of
Mizoram state. It further describes the state’s geographical and socio-economic
conditions. Mizoram has agrarian economy where a large number of people depend
on cultivating subsistence cereals to carry their livelihoods. The mode of cultivating
crops is traditional. It leads to low production and productivity of crops.
Institutional supports to assist the poor rural people financially and provide them
technical assistance lag behind in the whole state as its economic situation is not
viable. The rural areas are inaccessible because transportation facilities are poor and
landscape does not permit to construct roads because of its high fragility and
instability.
This study looks into all the aspects of livelihoods and suggests that how can
agricultural production and productivity be increased and livelihood of people be
improved. Mizoram state has plenty of natural resources but they are unused lar-
gely. We suggest measures to use them optimally so that sustainable livelihoods can
be attained. This book contents total 10 chapters, including introduction and con-
clusion, and appendices. Other chapters are geographical backdrop and sustainable
livelihoods; geo-strategic location and political history; population and
socio-economic development; agriculture and livestock farming; livelihood analy-
sis; climate change: people’s perception, adaption and resilience; food security and
poverty; and sustainable livelihood approach to poverty reduction. It is unique and
useful study to all the stakeholders mainly to the academicians, students, policy
makers and officials who are involved in development activities.

ix
Contents

1 Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Literature Review . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2 Geographical Backdrop and Sustainable Livelihoods . . . . . . . . . . 17
Location and Extension . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
Physical Features . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Structural Hills. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Valley Fills . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Flood Plains . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Linear Ridges . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Major Rivers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Major Lakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Temperature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Rainfall . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
Relative Humidity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Forest Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Use Pattern and Conservation of Forests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
Soil Types. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
3 Geostrategic Location, Political History and Development. . . . . . . 31
International Boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
National Boundary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Political History . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
Socioeconomic Development After Statehood . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
4 Population and Socio-economic Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Population Dynamics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
Culture and Religion. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

xi
xii Contents

Socio-economic Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
Potential of Industrial Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Food Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Handlooms and Handicrafts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Transportation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Roads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Airways. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Railways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42
Waterways . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Hydropower Potential . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Potentials of Tourist Development . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
5 Land Use: Agriculture and Livestock Farming. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Land Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
Land-Use Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Agricultural Practices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Shifting Cultivation and Its Implications . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Land Tenures. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Agro-Climatic Zones. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Cropping Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Changes in Shifting Cultivation and Decrease in Cropped Land . . . . . 59
Case Study . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Cropping Pattern . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Major Drivers of Changes in Land Use and Cropping Pattern . . . . . . 62
New Land Use Policy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
Low Production and Productivity of Crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Modernization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Climate Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
6 Livelihood Analysis. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Sources of Income and Occupation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Expenditure on Major Heads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
7 Climate Change: People’s Perception, Adaptation,
and Resilience. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 71
Climate Change: People’s Perception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 73
Is Climate Changing? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 74
What Is the Impact of Climate Change on Agriculture
and Livestock Farming?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 74
Climate Change Impact on Agriculture and Livestock Farming ..... 75
Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 76
How the Marginal Farmers Adapt and Resilient
with Climate Change? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 76
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ..... 79
Contents xiii

8 Food Security and Poverty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... . . . . . . 81

Major Food Security Indicators and Their Status ......... . . . . . . 84
Production, Consumption, and Secure Months of Rice Crops . . . . . . . 85
Regulation and Satisfaction of Food Supply. . . . ......... . . . . . . 87
Chronic Poverty and Malnutrition. . . . . . . . . . . ......... . . . . . . 88
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ......... . . . . . . 91
9 Sustainable Livelihood Approach to Poverty Reduction . . . . . . . . 93
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Livelihood Assets and Their Major Components . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Natural Capital. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 94
Human Capital. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Financial Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Physical Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
Social Capital . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Vulnerability Context: Natural Hazards in Mizoram . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Landslide Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Earthquake Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Cyclone/Wind/Thunderstorm Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Flood Hazards . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Forest Fire. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Road Accidents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
References. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
10 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
Major Challenges of Livelihood Strategies. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Geographical Remoteness and Landscape Fragility . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Geostrategic Location . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Low Density of Population and Its Sparse Distribution . . . . . . . . . 102
Lagging Behind in Infrastructural Facilities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Economic Backwardness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Low Production and Yields of Crops. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
People’s Apathy Toward Development Activities . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Under Use of Forest and Water Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Lacking of Institutional and Policy Support . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Future Potentials and Major Opportunities . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Suitable Climate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Panoramic Landscape . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Peaceful Society . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
High Economic Viability of Forests . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
High Potential of Water Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Strategic Location that Needs Rapid Development . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
What Do We Need? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Introduction of High Yield Variety Crops . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Introduction of High Yield Variety Animal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
xiv Contents

Establishment of Small-Scale Forest-Based Industries . . . . . . . ... 106

Value Addition and Establishment of Food
and Fruit Processing Centers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Development of Tourism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Development of Handicrafts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Imparting Training to Farmers to Cope with Adverse Situation. . . . 107
Increasing Institutional Support. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Reducing Vulnerability . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Appendices I . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Appendices II . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
Appendices III. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
About the Authors

Vishwambhar Prasad Sati (b. 1966), gained his

D.Litt. in 2011 and Ph.D. in 1992 in Geography, is a
Professor of Geography and Resource Management,
Mizoram University, Aizawl, India. He has above
22 years teaching and research experience and his
research interest is in mountain geography. He served
many national and international educational institutes
in various capacities—Assistant Professor, Associate
Professor and Professor in the Madhya Pradesh
Higher Education and Associate Professor in the
Eritrea Institute of Technology, Asmara, Eritrea, NE
Africa. He has been CAS-PIFI Fellow (2016), Visiting
Scholar of CAS (2014), Visiting Scholar of TWAS (2010), worked at the IMHE,
Chengdu, China; Visiting Scholar of INSA (1012); General Fellow of ICSSR
(2008–2009), worked at the HNBGU, Srinagar Garhwal; an Associate at IIAS,
Shimla (2008); and Research Fellow of GBPIHED (1993). He received ‘Bharat
Gaurav Award, 2016’ for his teaching and academic contributions. He has com-
pleted nine research projects; composed 23 reference and text books; published
94 research papers in journals of international and national repute and a number of
articles in magazines and newspapers; presented research papers (77) in 17 coun-
tries and in all over India; received fellowships and travel grants from 18 research
organizations to participate in various international events; supervised six Ph.D.
thesis; organized six conferences; chaired a number of academic sessions; served as
Resource Person in several national and international conferences; and serving
many international professional bodies as member, editor and reviewer.

xv
xvi About the Authors

Lalrinpuia Vangchhia (b. 1991) gained his M.Sc. in

Geography from the Department of Geography and
Resource Management, Mizoram University, Aizawl,
Mizoram, India in 2012. He worked as a Research
Assistant in an ICSSR funding project from 2014 to
2016 (two years). Currently, he is persuading his
doctoral programme.
Abbreviations

FSI Forest Survey of India

GBPIHED Govind Ballabh Pant Institute of Himalayan Environment and
Development
GPS Global positioning system
GSDP Gross state domestic product
MDF Moderate dense forest
MNF Mizo National Front
MT Metric tone
NDF Very dense forest
NGO Non-government organization
NLUP New land use policy
NTFP Non-timber forest products
OF Open forest
PPA Participatory poverty assessment
PRA Participatory rural appraisal
UKDID United Kingdom Department for International Development
UNCED United Nations Conference on Environment and Development

xvii
Acronyms

Chhawrpial Run Chhawrpial means a peaceful culture and run means home.
So Mizoram is also called Chhawrpial Run because, it holds
peace
Duhlian Duhlian is the original dialect of Mizos
Head Hunter During the past, Mizos were involved in keeping slaves,
fighting with other tribal groups, cutting of the head of
fighters and displaying them at the entrance of village
Highlanders Mizos prefer to live on the hill tops and they are called
highlanders
Hnatlang It means social work. Mizos are socially integrated and they
work together and assist each other
Jhuming cultivation It is an old practice of cultivating crops in which agricultural
fields are shifted from one area to other after a certain period
of time. It is also called lashing and burning agriculture,
characterises rainfed agriculture
Jhum cycle It is cycle of jhum fields. Earlier, it was about 20–25 year’s
cycle now, it has been reduced to two–three years
Lal Lal is the head of a village who decides the agricultural and
natural resources use and manages them
Lushai Lushai is the mizo clan. The king of this clan was very
powerful and thus Mizoram was called Lushai hills earlier
Tlawmngai It is a person who is well behaved, brave, respects others and
assists them. Mizos have all these qualities
Wet rice cultivation It is a system where paddy is cultivated in irrigated fields,
mostly lie in the flood plains and valley fills
Zau Agriculture Zau denotes a vast agricultural land, collectively used by a
number of families

xix
Chapter 1
Introduction

The sustainable livelihood idea was first introduced by the Brundtland Commission
on Environment and Development as a way of linking socioeconomic and eco-
logical considerations in a cohesive, policy-relevant structure. In 1992, the United
Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) expanded the
concept, especially in the context of Agenda 21, and advocated that achieving
sustainable livelihoods may be a broad goal for poverty reduction. It stated that
sustainable livelihoods could serve as “an integrating factor that allows policies to
address development, sustainable resource management and poverty reduction
simultaneously” (Krantz 2001). The term sustainable livelihood has been defined
by the scholars, worldwide. Chambers and Conway (1992a, b) defined it as “A
livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets, (stores, resources, claims and access)
and activities required for a means of living: a livelihood is sustainable which can
cope with and recover from stress and shocks, maintain or enhance its capabilities
and assets, and provide sustainable livelihood opportunities for the next generation;
and which contributes net benefits to other livelihoods at the local and global levels
and in the short and long term.” Scoones (1998) modified and defined it as “A
livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets (including both material and social
resources) and activities required for a means of living. A livelihood is sustainable
when it can cope with and recover from stresses and shocks maintain or enhance its
capabilities and assets, while not undermining the natural resource base.” Sati et al.
(2014) while conducting a study on the options and strategies of sustainable
livelihoods in the upper Minjiang River basin of China defined livelihood strategies
as increased well-being, reduced vulnerability, improved food security, and more
sustainable use of natural resources base. It largely depends on the availability of
livelihood assets/capitals—natural capital, human capital, financial capital, physical
capital, and social capital. Vulnerability context—shocks, trends and seasonality—
and institutional and policy context are the other aspects of livelihood strategies.
A sustainable livelihood is a situation, where all these aspects are controlled and
they have a greater potential to future livelihood sustainability.

© The Author(s) 2017 1

V.P. Sati and L. Vangchhia, A Sustainable Livelihood Approach to Poverty
Reduction, SpringerBriefs in Environmental Science,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-45623-2_1
2 1 Introduction

Poverty and malnutrition is a common phenomenon and an emerging issue in the

mountainous regions of the world. A large number of people in mountain regions
are dependent on the biomass-based agriculture within its limited scope and pro-
portionately less arable land. In the meantime, the output in the forms of production
and per ha yields of crops is comparatively less, even, it is not sufficient to feed the
growing population. Sustainable livelihood approach, therefore, is inevitable to
reduce poverty and malnutrition. Mountains are known for abundance of natural
resources such as land, water, forest, feasible climate, and panoramic landscape,
and for its innocent people. Meanwhile, they characterize tremendous growth of
population, slow pace of development, low production, and per ha yield of crops
and subsequently inadequate supply of food grains. Most of the population lives
below poverty line. Largely depend upon traditionally cultivating subsistence crops;
people could not produce sufficient food grains to carry their livelihood sustainable.
Further, dependency on forest products and livestock farming to substantiate
livelihoods go parallel. The available natural resources are largely unused; thus,
optimum use of abundant natural resources will eradicate poverty and will attain
food security.
Mizoram characterizes high landscape fragility. Tectonic movements are active
and it falls under ffifth seismic zone in seismic zone mapping of India. A very active
zone “Indo-Burmese Arc” passes through the south of Mizoram. The hills of
Mizoram are formed during the recent geological timescale at the time of the
Himalayan orogeny. Thus, the landscape is highly vulnerable and fragile.
Landslides and soil erosion are very common. Unscientific shifting cultivation
further accentuates the landscape vulnerability and fragility.
The term “Mizoram” denotes to the land of the highlanders. Its mountainous part
is nomenclature as the “rolling hills.” Economy of the state is mostly based on
practicing agriculture and livestock farming. Additionally, shifting cultivation
dominates in agriculture. Crops grow mostly in the hilly terrain after slashing and
burning of forestland during the rainy season because shifting cultivation is
rain-fed. Further, shifting cultivation is the main occupation as about 50 % of
working population depends on its cultivation and it has become a way of life of
people. Meanwhile, it has adverse impact on production and productivity of crops.
Forest depletion and environmental degradation are the other impacts of shifting
cultivation. A small proportion of agricultural land spreads in the valley fills and
flood plains, where wet rice is cultivated under permanent agriculture. Population in
Mizoram is sparsely distributed. The people prefer to construct their houses on the
top of the hills; therefore, population concentration is higher in the high altitudes.
Mizoram obtains abundance of natural resources (natural capital) in the forms of
land, water, forest, and feasible climatic conditions. Further, landscape and climatic
conditions, which are the parts of natural capitals, influence livelihoods of people as
they are very favorable for the tourism and hydropower development. These
resources constitute prominent livelihood options and support a large number of
people. Land resources, mainly farming land, play a significant role in livelihood
enhancement of rural people. Farming of agricultural and horticultural crops in the
fragile and undulating terrain of Mizoram hills constitute one of the major
1 Introduction 3

livelihood options as above 50 % of the total population is involved in practicing

agriculture. Out of it, about 50 % population is engaged in shifting cultivation.
Forest resources are abundant as they cover 91.27 % area. Timber and non-timber
forest products (NTFPs) also provide livelihoods to rural people. Most of the
villages lie in the forest areas and they depend largely on collection of NTFP for
fuel-wood, fodder, and food. Bamboo has multiple uses as it is the major source of
food and is used for constructing houses and handicrafts. Water resource is vital as
numerous perennial rivers originate and flow from the state. At the meantime, water
resource is largely unused and often the rural areas receive acute water scarcity.
Development of hydropower projects will lead to generate energy and to supply
adequate water. The atmosphere is pollution free, leads to the high environmental
sustainability index, ranges between 80 and 100 %. Tourism may be the promising
activity for the state to enhance livelihood through generating income and aug-
menting employment. However, use pattern of these given natural resources varies
from place to place and they are mostly under used and thus, the state is eco-
nomically underdeveloped. This study draws a detailed sketch on the major
livelihood options mainly the natural resources and suggests that how these
abundant natural resources can be utilized sustainably and how a sustainable
livelihood approach to poverty reduction can be developed.
Changes in land use and cropping patterns were observed. The major categories
of land use are arable land—shifting and permanent—land under cereals and cash
crops, barren land, fallow land, and community forest/forestland. Our study shows
that area under shifting cultivation has reduced largely during the recent past.
Similarly, area under permanent agriculture also decreased. Barren land, fallow
land, and forestland including community forestland have increased simultane-
ously. Changes in occupational structure were also noticed. Although, farming of
subsistence crops is the major occupation yet, during the recent decades, the rural
people have left working in the agricultural fields and shifted to working in the
private and governmental sectors, therefore the number of people working in the
agricultural fields decreased. Employment opportunity increased in livestock
farming and government sectors.
Mizoram characterizes acute food insecurity. As a result, people face chronic
poverty and malnutrition, which has become a common phenomenon and has led to
high infant mortality rate (35). In Saiha district, which is located in the extreme
southwest part of Mizoram and bordered with Myanmar, infant mortality rate is
above 200. To reduce poverty and to attain food security, natural resources, which
are abundantly found in Mizoram, need to be harnessed optimally. A shift toward
cash crops, minimizing shifting cultivation, harnessing agro-ecological conditions,
introduction to eco-tourism and better use of water and forest resources will surely
reduce poverty and enhance sustainable livelihood.
The main objective of this study is to examine the food security status, major
driving forces affecting it, and to assess the major livelihood approaches to poverty
reduction in Mizoram. It also assesses the abundance natural resources and raise
question that how we can utilize available natural resources for economic sus-
tainability and well-being of society. This study further investigates the various
4 1 Introduction

approaches to livelihood enhancement through the best agricultural practices, best

use of agro-climate and landscape, optimum use of timber and non-timber forest
products, and ample use of available water resources.

Methodology

The study was conducted using a mix-set of qualitative and quantitative approa-
ches. Data was obtained mainly from the primary sources. A case study of 16
villages was carried out and a household level survey was conducted to gather first
hand data. Random sampling method was employed to select the households. We
have used geographical location, population, and socioeconomic indicators for
selecting villages. Geographical indicators include location (flood plains, valley fills
and hills) and distance from urban center and road; population size, the levels of
infrastructural facilities such as transportation, banking, educational institutions;
income levels, and employment opportunities were the socioeconomic indicators.
Mizoram comprises eight districts. We selected two villages from each district,
considering the given indicators. Household level survey was conducted using a
structured questionnaire. Out of 2010 households in 16 villages, 1527 households
(76 %) were surveyed. The questions were raised on the different aspects such as
population, education, occupation, land use, cropping pattern, natural resources
availability, use pattern, major livelihood options, sources of income, expenditure
on the major commodities, climate change impact on agriculture and livelihood
options, and people’s responses to climate change. Data was collected on food
security levels, poverty, and malnutrition. Rapid field visits of the selected villages
were made and participatory rural appraisal was adopted to compare the gathered
data. Finally, collected data was calculated using SPSS software. Statistical meth-
ods such as descriptive statistics, correlation, and regression were largely used to
calculate data on population profile, occupational structure, income sources,
livelihood options, land use/cover change and cropping pattern. Special focus was
given to socioeconomic relevance of shifting cultivation and its ecological impli-
cations. Changes in area under different crops, production, and per ha yield was
calculated. We calculated nutritional value and energy intake (Kcal), poverty and
infant mortality of the selected villages. The methodology of calculating data is
discussed in the respective chapters. Table 1.1 shows a detailed description of the
villages—number of households and surveyed households of case study villages.
Another case study of five villages, located in Aizawl district, was carried out
(Table 1.2). About 20 % households from each village were studied randomly.
Located on the different altitudes and distance from Aizawl city, these villages have
agricultural economy, as a large number of people are engaged in practicing
agriculture. During the recent decade, changes in agricultural and livelihood pat-
terns, occupation, and sources of income were noticed in these villages.
We observed latitude, longitude, slope, altitude, and distances of the study vil-
lages from district headquarters using Global Positioning System (GPS) (Table 1.3).
Methodology 5

Table 1.1 Description of surveyed households

Name of District where the Total Households % of
village village is located households surveyed surveyed
(2011)* (2014) households
Tualcheng Champhai 157 136 86.6
Pamchung Champhai 63 57 90.5
Nausel Aizawl 61 53 86.9
Hmuifang* Aizawl 62 62 100
Mualkhang Kolasib 106 65 61.3
Saihapui K Kolasib 266 114 42.9
Hmawngkawn* Serchhip 36 36 100
Chekawn Serchhip 49 47 95.90
Chhumkhum* Lunglei 53 53 100
Thlengang Lunglei 45 39 86.9
Rawlbuk* Lawngtlai 119 119 100
E.Saizawh Lawngtlai 107 81 75.7
Ahmypi Saiha 42 37 88.1
Old Tisopi* Saiha 35 35 100
Bawngthah* Mamit 74 74 100
Lengpui Mamit 735 519 70.6
Total 2010 1527 76.0
Source Field survey, 2014
*
Census of India, 2011

Table 1.2 Case study villages, total households, surveyed households (20 %)
Name of village Total household* Surveyed households Total population
Melriat 199 40 222
Kelsih 149 30 156
Hmuifang 53 12 58
Samtlang 152 30 161
Nausel 61 13 75
Total 614 125 672
Source Surveyed by author (August 2015)
*
COI, 2011

The secondary data, relating to socioeconomy and geography of the state, was
collected from the various government records such as state statistical diary, the
forest survey of India and from the State Agricultural Department. Two time series
data were calculated on land use and cropping pattern. Forest products and their use
pattern were illustrated. District wise data on population and occupational structure
were gathered from secondary sources.
6 1 Introduction

Table 1.3 Salient geographical features of case study villages

Village Location Slope Altitude Distance from district
Latitude Longitude (M) headquarter (km)
(N) (E)
Tualcheng 23° 43ʹ 24ʺ 93° 30ʹ 42ʺ Steep 1513 60
Pamchung 23° 43ʹ 74ʺ 93° 23ʹ 44ʺ Steep 1167 70
Nausel 23° 48ʹ 58ʺ 92° 45ʹ 53ʺ Steep 946 16
Hmuifang 23o44ʹ24ʺ 92° 75ʹ 56ʺ Steep 1472 51
Mualkhang 23° 53ʹ 23ʺ 92° 40ʹ 44ʺ Steep 507 46
Saihapui K 24° 16ʹ 29ʺ 92° 38ʹ 02ʺ Plain 118 13
Hmawngkawn 23° 49ʹ 26ʺ 92° 49ʹ 23ʺ Steep 1218 33
Chekkawn 23° 18ʹ 16ʺ 93° 18ʹ 19ʺ Steep 907 40
Chhumkhum 22° 49ʹ 21ʺ 92° 36ʹ 11ʺ Gentle 286 44
Thlengang 22° 40ʹ 21ʺ 92° 54ʹ 42ʺ Steep 1094 70
Rawlbuk 22° 40ʹ 29ʺ 92° 59ʹ 44ʺ Steep 1201 53
E.Saizawh 22° 21ʹ 56ʺ 92° 49ʹ 56ʺ Gentle 358 60
Ahmypi 22° 21ʹ 56ʺ 93° 01ʹ 54ʺ Steep 1043 75
Old Tisopi 22° 33ʹ 19ʺ 92° 59ʹ 35ʺ Steep 1182 38
Bawngthah 23° 13ʹ 28ʺ 92° 36ʹ 27ʺ Steep 800 53
Lengpui 23° 50ʹ 18ʺ 92° 37ʹ 13ʺ Gentle 412 30
Source GPS survey

Literature Review

Sustainable livelihood approach to poverty reduction has been addressed by several

scholars worldwide, which leads to emergence of a number of different sustainable
livelihood approaches (Ashley and Carley 1999). However, most of them rely on
analytical framework that owes a significant to the version developed by IDS
sustainable livelihood programmes (Scoones 1998), and subsequently adopted and
slightly modified by the United Kingdom Department for International
Development (UKDID). Rural Livelihoods Department of the UKDID funded four
parallel studies between 2000 and 2003 to identify how the livelihoods of the rural
poor can be enhanced. These were located in southern and eastern Africa, and in
South Asia. It was aimed to identify innovative ways of enhancing livelihoods, and
to promote exchange of experience among donors and governments across the
regions. The other studies were conducted by the London-based Overseas
Development Institute was concerned with livelihood options.
Studies on sustainable livelihood have addressed that the traditionally empha-
sized determinants of production are not the only ones that are important. In
addition to traditionally emphasized determinants of productivity and capital
investments, other important aspects are non-farm income, soil conservation
investments, and market infrastructure improvements. Similarly, agricultural
Literature Review 7

practice is developing in dynamic fashion in advance of population pressure, lar-

gely due to market responses. Risk, and the perception of risk, is a key factor
influencing the nature and timing of intensification and diversification decisions.
A recent study of the evolution of commercial vegetable gardening from 1971 to
1988 in the Philippines found that there had been a two- to threefold increase in
labor invested per unit of land in gardening itself. The importance of understanding
the broader political and economic issues to explain the presence (or absence) of
sustainable livelihoods has been highlighted by a number of studies. Farmers on
Rusinga Island in Kenya have abandoned intensive agricultural practices. Similarly,
in Usagara, Tanzania a change from cotton to rice, and the increased use of manure
as fertilizer, can be explained in part by the changing factor prices, related to the
removal of subsidies on fertilizers. In Senegal, the use of fertilizer has declined over
the years of structural adjustment. A more recent study examines how the prof-
itability of main crops has changed and affected the choice of crop mix and tech-
nology; and argues that devaluation has not encouraged farmers to sustainable
patterns of intensification characterized by high fertilizer use.
Chambers and Conway (1992a, b) proposed the following composite definition
of a sustainable rural livelihood; A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets
(stores, resources, claims, and access), and activities required for a means of living:
a livelihood is sustainable that can cope with and recover from stress and shocks,
maintain, or enhance its capabilities and assets, and provide sustainable livelihood
opportunities for the next generation; and which contributes net benefits to other
livelihoods at the local and global levels and in the short and long term. The term
livelihood describes the capacities, capital (human, social, productive/economic,
natural), and activities needed to sustain life. A livelihood is considered sustainable
when it can respond and recover from abrupt shocks, and can maintain or improve
its capacities and capital without undermining the natural resource base. There are
five key elements in this definition such as generation of employment, reducing
poverty, well-being and skills, adaptation, recovery and vulnerability, and sus-
tainability of natural resources.
Chambers and Conway (1992a, b) in continuation believe that sustainable
development requires increasing capacity of rural people to influence and control
their future on a long-term basis, a goal that can be achieved by strengthening
capacity, supporting equity, and fostering empowerment. There was a growing
understanding that alleviating poverty is more than a production problem; that rural
employment is characterized by multifarious activities (diversification), and
deprivation and well-being have multiple dimensions. A livelihood comprises the
capabilities, assets (including both material and social resources), and activities
required for a means of living.
Chambers and Conway (1992a, b) further discuss its emergence had all the
qualities of a classic “paradigm shift,” a midwifery role was played by the
influential IDS discussion paper that changed perceptions of the nature of rural
8 1 Introduction

development and the priorities for policy and practice. This change came at a time
when previous dominant theories and practices—particularly those associated with
integrated rural development—were losing their intellectual and political appeal.
Norgaard (1994) describes one of the more significant recent achievements in the
study of ecological and economic systems are that the economy and its environment
are jointly determined systems and the economic activity scale is such that it
matters. This applies specifically to food systems that are genuinely jointly deter-
mined socioeconomic ecological systems.
The sustainable livelihood approach shows the variety of activities that people
carry out, often in combination, to make a living. As several authors have pointed
out, this is particularly important in the case of the poor, who often rely on a
number of different types of economic activities for their livelihoods, and where it is
not any activity but their combined effect for the household economy that matters
(Chambers 1995; Hussein and Nelson 1998).
FAO (1996) discusses the two main themes of the rural development agenda of
the 1990s has been characterized by: a strong emphasis on the environment and the
protection of natural resources and a continued focus on macro-policy, liberaliza-
tion and the role of government in relation to the private sector, and the importance
of effective public management. It stresses the need for new investment in both the
technical and the policy dimensions of agriculture in order to keep tip production
and extend access to food to the poorest sections of the population.
UNDP (1997) highlights the sustainable livelihood idea that was first introduced
by the Brundtland Commission on Environment and development as a way of
linking socioeconomic and ecological considerations in a cohesive, policy-relevant
structure. The 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development
(UNCED) expanded the concept, especially in the context of Agenda 21 and
advocated for the achievement of sustainable livelihoods as a broad goal for poverty
eradication. It stated that sustainable livelihood could serve as “an integrating
factor” that allows policies to address “development, sustainable resource man-
agement and poverty eradication simultaneously.” Most of the discussion on sus-
tainable livelihood so far has focused on rural areas and situations where people are
farmers or make a living from some kind of primary self-managed production.
Carney (1998) describes about 70 % of the world’s poor live in rural areas.
Though urban poverty is rising, the correlation between poverty and remoteness
from urban centers is strong in most countries and it is expected to remain so until
at least the second decade of the next century. The International Development
Target of halving the number of people living in extreme poverty by 2015 will be
achievable if the problem of rural poverty is confronted head-on. Food security
remains a key concern. Over 850 million people in the world are undernourished. It
is therefore important to ensure that the new approaches contribute to improved
agricultural productivity and that they help increase the poor people’s access to
Literature Review 9

food. Resource degradation is an acute problem in rural areas. Sustainable rural

livelihoods can only be achieved if natural resources are themselves used in sus-
tainable ways. Maintaining objectivity in decisions about what constitutes sus-
tainable use is likely to be an enormous challenge, particularly in areas where
people are already extremely vulnerable and have few options other than increased
use of resources.
According to Carney (1998), the sustainable livelihood framework is built
around five principal categories of livelihood assets, graphically depicted as a
pentagon to underline their interconnections and the fact that livelihoods depend on
a combination of assets of various kinds and not just from one category. An
important part of the analysis is thus to find out people’s access to different types of
assets (physical, human, financial, natural, and social) and their ability to put these
to productive use. The framework offers a way of assessing how organizations,
policies, institutions, cultural norms shape livelihoods, both by determining who
gains access to which type of asset, and defining what range of livelihood strategies
are open and attractive to people. He explains human capital refers to labor together
with its education level, skill, and health.
Ashley and Carney (1999) discuss sustainable livelihood offers a fresh approach.
Part of its attraction is that it captured and synthesized diverse strands of evolving
thought and action. It can be seen as having conceptual, practical and organizational
roots. Conceptually, it draws on changing views of poverty, recognizing the
diversity of aspirations, the importance of assets and communities. Practically, it
places people—rather than resources, facilities, or organizations—as the focus of
concern and action, emphasizing that development must be participatory and
improvements must be sustainable.
Scoones (1998) identified four types of capital in the IDS framework concep-
tualized as different types of capital to stress their role as a resource base, from
which different productive streams are derived and livelihoods are constructed.
They are natural capital—soil, water, air, and genetic resources; economic or
financial capital—cash, credit/debt, savings, and other economic assets, including
basic infrastructure and production equipment and technologies; human capital—
the skills, knowledge, ability to labor and good health, and social capital—the
social resources (networks, social claims, social relations, affiliations, and
associations).
Scoones (1998) further defines livelihood resources as the basic materials that
people use for constructing their livelihoods. According to him, livelihood strate-
gies themselves must also be subject to analysis, and they often consist of com-
binations of activities which Scoones calls “livelihood portfolios.” He further
discusses that a portfolio may highly be specialized and concentrate on one or a few
activities. Finally, livelihood strategies frequently vary between individuals and
households depending on differences in asset ownership, income levels, gender,
age, caste, and social or political status. A socially differentiated analytical approach
to livelihood strategies is thus necessary.
10 1 Introduction

Perrings (1998) describes that the recent research on jointly determined

socioeconomic and ecological systems are stochastic evolutionary systems char-
acterized by path-dependency, discontinuous changes, multiple equilibrium and
nonlinearity. An implication of this characterization is that the stability of the jointly
determined system depends less on the stability of individual components of the
system, than on the ability of the system to maintain its self-organization in the face
of stress and shock that is on its “resilience.” The sustainable livelihood approach
produces a more holistic view on what resources, or combination of resources, are
important to the poor, including not only physical and natural resources, but also
their social and human capital (Holland and Blackburn 1998). Ellis (1998) dis-
cusses livelihoods diversification is a fundamental feature of livelihood strategies
particularly among rural households.
DFID (1999a, b, c) describes the vulnerability context refers to those aspects of
the external environment that influence livelihoods and over which people have
limited or no control. These aspects of the external environment have a direct
impact on the asset status of people and the options open to them to pursue a
beneficial livelihood. It also discusses financial capital measures the availability of
cash or the equivalent that enables people to adopt different livelihood strategies. It
can be in the form of savings, loans, or other transfers. Social capital refers to the
social resources upon which people draw in (e.g., social networks, membership in
formal and informal groups, and participation in relationships of trust, reciprocity
and exchanges). The transforming structures and processes include the institutions,
policies and organizations that determine access to assets, returns to livelihoods
strategies and terms of exchange between different types of capital. Livelihood
strategies denote the range and combination of activities and choices that people
make/undertake in order to achieve their livelihood goals. They include productive
activities, investment strategies, reproductive choices, and others.
Drinkwater and Rusinow (1999) explains that to understand the complex and
differentiated processes through which livelihoods are constructed, it is insufficient
just to analyze the different aspects of livelihood resources and strategies as separate
elements. One must also analyze the institutional processes and organizational
structures that link these various elements together. A shift from a materialist
perspective focuses on food production to a social perspective, which focuses on
the enhancement of people’s capabilities to secure their own livelihoods. They
further explain that social empowerment, which refers to the establishment and/or
strengthening of existing, representative, community-based organizations to build
up the capacity for community members to plan and implement priority develop-
ment activities that emerge from participatory needs assessments, and in so doing,
to provide communities with the means to develop their own principles and
structures of democratic representation and governance.
Poverty is rarely uniformly distributed within an area. Agrawal and Gibson
(1999) describe that in every community, some people are better off than others,
Literature Review 11

and even if it the social or economic differences are not clear to an outsider, they
exist and the poor are living side-by-side with more affluent households.
Communities usually do not represent such homogeneous collective social units as
most development projects or programmes tend to assume.
Frankenberger et al. (2000) observes “rapid and participatory livelihood security
assessment has become a major tool for the collection and analysis of information at
the community level, over the last five years.” The main purpose of these partici-
patory assessments is to understand the nature of livelihood strategies of different
categories of households (social differentiation), their levels of livelihood security
and the principle constraints and opportunities to address through programming.
This information is also disaggregated by gender and generation.
Ellis (2000) recognizes five types of livelihood assets (capitals) such as natural,
physical, human, financial, and social capital. This categorization is assumed to be a
settlement for the various lists of assets identified by different researchers. Natural
capital refers to environmental resources such as land, water, and biological
resources, whereas physical capital stands for those assets created by production
processes such as buildings, roads, farm equipment, tools, and irrigation canals. He
considers them as critical mediating factors that inhibit or facilitate household’s
exercise of capabilities and choices. They are distinct from the vulnerability context
as they are predominantly endogenous to the social nouns and structures of which
households are a part. Livelihood strategy is a dynamic process in which house-
holds combine activities to meet their various needs at different times. He identifies
two broad categories: natural resource-based activities such as collecting or gath-
ering, crop/food cultivation, livestock keeping pastoralism, brick making, weaving,
thatching, etc., and non-natural resource-based activities such as trade and services.
Ashley and Hussein (2000) determine a livelihood-based assessment of the
impact of an intervention will consider current livelihood strategies of people, their
achievement and priorities, how these are influenced by the intervention and dif-
ferences between different groups with regard to such impacts. Based on this
understanding positive and negative livelihood impacts and the underlying motives
of participation or reaction of different groups of people can be identified.
Frankenberger et al. (2000) describes rapid and participatory livelihood security
assessments have become a major tool for the collection and analysis of information
at the community level livelihood data. The main purpose of these participatory
assessments is to understand the nature of livelihood strategies of different cate-
gories of households, their levels of livelihood security and the principle constraints
and opportunities to address through programming.
Barrett et al. (2001) highlights that livelihood diversification decisions are
influenced by vulnerability contexts such as seasonality and shocks, ownership and
access to assets, and factors related to transforming structures and processes
including macro-economic policies and market failures.
Baumann and Sinha (2001) discuss the sustainable livelihood framework has
become an analytical framework or an approach to planning development projects
and programmes. Castro (2002) describe the sustainable livelihoods approach helps
the analyst to generate questions focused on the ability of people to support
12 1 Introduction

themselves with a view of the entire context of their livelihoods—both physical and
social environments, and at the local to the global level.
Krantz (2001) explains the concept of sustainable livelihood is an attempt to go
beyond the conventional definitions and approaches to poverty eradication. These
had been found to be too narrow because they focused only on certain aspects or
manifestations of poverty, such as low income, or did not consider other vital
aspects of poverty such as vulnerability and social exclusion, it is now recognized
that more attention must be paid to the various factors and processes, which either
constrain or enhance poor people’s ability to make a living in an economically,
ecologically, and socially sustainable manner. The sustainable development concept
offers the prospects of a more coherent and integrated approach to poverty.
Orr and Mwale (2001), Barrett et al. (2001), Brown et al. (2006), Devereux
(2006), Ellis and Freeman (2007), and Babulo et al. (2008) provide a way to order
information and understand not only the nature of poverty but also the links
between different aspects of people’s livelihoods. In this way, they help users to
understand complex and changing situations. They broaden the policy dialog and
assist in identifying the relevance of programmes as well as where key constraints
and opportunities lie. Furthermore, livelihoods approaches are still essential within
social and economic research on poverty and food security, both as embedded in
research strategies or as a research tool.
De Stage et al. (2002) discusses how people operate within a vulnerability
context that is shaped by different factors—shifting seasonal constraints (and
opportunities), economic shocks, and longer term trends how they draw on different
types of livelihood assets or capitals in different combinations, which are influenced
by the vulnerability context a range of institutions and processes how they use their
asset base to develop a range of livelihoods strategies to achieve desired livelihood
outcomes.
Kollmair et al. (2002) highlights two steps to investigate sustainable livelihood
approach; a detailed investigation of the living conditions of the target population is
the starting point of a development project based on the sustainable livelihood
approach and to identify limiting factors, which hinder the adaptation of sustainable
livelihood strategies on the one hand and recognize the factors that reduce vul-
nerability on the other. The sustainable livelihood approach might serve as an
analytical tool in order to identify development priorities and new activities prior to
any development activity. A livelihood analysis therefore applies a broad range of
conventional methods and instruments, for example, from participatory poverty
assessment (PPA), participatory rural appraisal (PRA), and good governance
assessment techniques.
Dorward et al. (2003) describes the widely appreciated feature of livelihoods
thinking and approach is that it directs attention to a holistic approach, to the
multiple forces and influences on people’s livelihoods, to the assets and access to
assets and to the options people possess in practice to pursue alternative activities.
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
 SECONDARY OR REMOTE RESULTS OF
LIVER DISEASE.

In gout: Arrest of oxidation of proteids into urea. Deposits of biurate of lime on

joints, and other disorders. Urinary calculi containing urates, cystine, xanthine,
etc., also from imperfect oxidation of albuminoids. Oxalic acid represents a similar
arrest. Kidney degenerations from irritating urates and oxalates. Fatty kidney from
excessive glycogenesis. Digestive disorders from excess or deficiency of bile or
torpid liver. Nervous disorders, dullness, lameness, vertigo, spasms, irritability
from hepatic inactivity and resulting poisons. Sore throat and bronchitis from
hepatic derangement. Skin eruptions in tardy or imperfect action of the liver.
Treatment: Abundant water, succulent vegetables, ensilage, fresh grains, balanced
ration, in carnivora and omnivora oat meal, buttermilk, clear meat juice, avoid
sweets, gravies, spiced animal food. Dangers for pampered horses, dogs, and old
improved meat producing animals. Open air exercise. Laxatives with alkalies,
salines, mercurous and mercuric chloride, pilocarpin, chlorides, iodides, bromides,
nitro-muriatic acid, ipecacuan, euonymus, bitters.

Among the many secondary results of hepatic disorder, and which

are habitually described as affections of other organs a few may be
mentioned as indicating the wide range of influence exercised by the
liver in disease as well as in health.
Gout as it appears in fowls and omnivora is directly due to the
arrest of the transformation of the albuminoids into urea. Circulating
in the system in the form of the less perfectly oxidized and less
soluble uric acid, it determines deposits of biurate of lime around the
joints, with local inflammations, and disorders of circulation and
innervation, and altered spirit, temper, etc.
Urinary calculi in the same animals, are composed largely of urate
of lime, cystine, xanthine and other nitrogenous products
representing various stages of oxidation short of the final transition
into urea and ammonia. Recognizing the active rôle which the
urinary bacteria fill in this respect we must still acknowledge the
great importance, as causative agents, of an excess in the urine of
these comparatively insoluble products.
The oxalic acid found in certain calculi points in the same
direction, as this acid, both in the body and in the laboratory, is
found to result from the oxidation of uric acid (Wohler, Schenck,
Hutchinson).
Degenerations of the Kidneys are to be largely traced to the same
hepatic source. The uric acid diathesis, and the oxalic acid diathesis,
both the result of imperfect liver function, are among the most
frequent causes of irritation of the kidneys, by which channel they
are eliminated from the body. Hence acute and chronic nephritis, as
well as nephritic calculi result from morbid conditions which have
their starting point in the imperfect function of the liver. Again fatty
degeneration of the kidney is very liable to result from derangement
of the glycogenic function of the liver, the tendency to the formation
of fat and the constant irritation caused by the passage of the sugar
contributing to the tissue degradation. In such cases albuminuria is a
not uncommon accompaniment.
Derangements of the Digestive Organs may be said to be a
necessary result of hepatic disorder. Excessive secretion of bile
stimulates peristalsis and may induce diarrhœa, while diminished
secretion tends to constipation, light colored, fœtid stools, intestinal
fermentations and poisoning by the irritant products. A torpid
hepatic circulation means congestion of the whole portal system,
indigestions, colics, chronic muco-enteritis, intestinal hemorrhages,
hemorrhoids, etc.
Derangements of the Nervous System. In this connection may be
named the lameness of the right shoulder which accompanies certain
disorders of the liver, the extreme dullness and depression that
attends on others, the sluggish pulse that appears in certain types,
the unsteadiness of gait (giddiness) in others, the muscular cramps,
and irritability in still others. These appear to be due in some
instances to the nervous sympathy of one part with another, whilst at
other times they as manifestly depend on the circulation in the blood
of partially oxidized and other morbid products of hepatic disorder
which prove direct poisons to the nervous system.
 Derangements of the circulation, like extreme rapidity, or slowness
of the pulse, irregularities in rhythm and intermissions, may be
charged more directly on the nervous affection, though primarily
determined by hepatic disorder.
On the part of the Respiratory Organs, affections of a chronic
type, like sore throat and bronchitis may often be traced to hepatic
torpor or disorder.
Skin Diseases are notoriously liable to come from inactive or
disordered liver, the irritant products circulating in the skin or
sweating out through it, giving rise to more or less irritation. The
result may be a simple pruritus, an urticaria, an eruption of papules,
vesicles or even pustules. In any such cases it is proper to look for
other indications of liver disease,—pale color and offensive odor of
the fæces, muco-enteritis, indigestion, icterus or yellow patches on
the mucous membranes, tenderness on percussion over the asternal
ribs, muscular neuralgia, nervous disorder, the passage of bile,
hæmoglobin, albumen, sugar or other abnormal elements in the
urine, etc.
 TREATMENT OF SECONDARY AND
FUNCTIONAL DISEASES OF THE LIVER.
Diet. Many hepatic disorders, and especially those that are
exclusively or mainly functional may be corrected by diet alone.
Prominent among dietary influences is the abundant supply of water.
The succulent grasses of spring and early summer constitute the
ideal diet, hastening and increasing elimination, and lessening the
density of the bile, even to the extent of dissolving biliary calculi and
concretions. Upon dry winter feeding such calculi are common
especially in ruminants, whereas after a month or two at pasture they
are extremely rare. In winter the same good may be arrived at by the
use of ensilage, brewer’s grains, roots, fruits, or even scalded hay or
bran. The two extremes of highly albuminous and highly
carbonaceous or saccharine food are to be avoided or used only in
limited amounts. In the one class are clover, alfalfa, sainfoin,
vetches, cowpea, lespedeza, especially in the form of hay, beans,
peas, cotton seed, gluten-meal, rape and linseed cake. In the other
are wheat, buckwheat, Indian corn, sorghum, sweet-corn and
cornstalks. Some agents like beets which are rich in saccharine
matter may be actually beneficial by reason of their laxative and
cholagogue action. In the carnivora the food should be largely of
simple mush of oatmeal, wheat seconds, or barley meal, skimmilk or
buttermilk. If it is needful to tempt the appetite in a fleshfed animal
this should not be done by rich, fat gravies, highly spiced animal
food, or rich saccharine puddings, but rather by the addition of a
little pure juice of lean meat, or some well skimmed beef tea.
It is as important to regulate the quantity as the quality of the food
as the heavy feeder will over-charge the liver as much by an excess of
otherwise wholesome food, as will the ordinary animal by the
indigestible and unwholesome articles. As a rule the improved
breeds of meat producing animals, have acquired such facility in fat
production that much of the surplus is largely and profitably
disposed of in this way, and in their short lives little obvious evil
comes of the overfeeding, but in cases in which this outlet proves
insufficient, as in horses and dogs that are highly fed on stimulating
or saccharine diet, and which are kept for the natural term of their
lives, with little exercise, the evil tends to reach a point of danger.
Nursing mothers and dairy cows find a measure of safety in the free
flow of milk and the yield of butter, but breeding cows that have been
improved till they have no longer a capacity for milking, but must
have their calves raised on the milk of other and milking strains are
correspondingly liable to suffer.
Exercise in the Open Air. As enforced idleness, on a full diet and in
a warm and moist environment is a main cause of hepatic disorder,
so abundant exercise in the open air and especially in a cool season is
beneficial in a marked degree. Beside the bracing effect on the
digestive organs and the improvement of the general tone of the
system, the action of the muscles in hastening the circulation greatly
favors the removal and elimination of waste matters. Still more
advantageous is the increased activity of the respiration and the
aspiratory power of the chest in at once unloading the portal system
and the liver by hastening the progress of the hepatic blood into the
vena cava and right heart, and in furnishing an abundant supply of
oxygen for the disintegration of the albuminoids and amylaceous
products. Such exercise must of course be adapted to the condition of
the animal and its power of sustaining muscular work, but
judiciously employed, it is one of the most effective agencies in
correcting and improving hepatic disorder or hepatic torpor. Idle
horses, the victims of obstinate habits of constipation, muco-enteric
irritation, indigestion, nervous, urinary or cutaneous disorders will
often be greatly benefited or entirely restored by systematic exercise.
This is one of the great advantages of a run at pasture, as the subject
secures at once the laxative cholagogue diet, an abundant supply of
oxygen, a better tone of the muscular and general system, and a more
perfect disintegration of albuminoids. Sea air with its abundance of
ozone is especially advantageous.
In the carnivora while we cannot send them to grass, much can be
done in the way of systematic exercise, and in the case of city dogs a
change to the country, where they can live out of doors and will be
tempted to constant exercise and play, will go far to correct a faulty
liver.
 Laxatives. Cholagogues. When a free action of bowels and liver
cannot be secured by succulent food and exercise, we can fall back on
medicinal laxatives. These are advantageous in various ways. Some
laxatives like podophyllin, aloes, colocynth, rhubarb, senna, jalap,
and taraxacum act directly on the liver in increasing the secretion of
bile. These may be used for a length of time in small doses and in
combination with the alkalies. Other aperients act directly on the
bowel carrying away the excess of bile, the albuminoids and
saccharine matter that would otherwise be absorbed, and by a
secretion from the portal veins, abstracting nitrogenous and
saccharine elements which would otherwise overtax the liver to
transform them. Thus indirectly these also act as cholagogues by
withholding the excess of material on which it has to operate, and by
rousing its functions sympathetically with those of the bowels. Thus
sulphates of magnesia and soda, and tartrates and citrates of the
same bases, given in the morning fasting, dissolved in a large
quantity of warm water and conjoined with sodium chloride,
ammonium chloride, sodium carbonate or other alkaline salts, or
with one or more of the vegetable cholagogues above mentioned,
may be continued for a length of time until the normal functions
have been re-established, and will maintain themselves irrespective
of this stimulus.
Calomel (and even mercuric chloride in small doses), though it is
not experimentally proved to be a direct cholagogue, is one of the
very best correctives of impaired hepatic function. It expels the bile
from the duodenum and bowels generally, thereby preventing its
reabsorption; it proves antiseptic to the ingesta; it eliminates much
of the peptone, saccharine and fatty matter from the intestines and
portal system thus relieving the liver materially; and it is supposed
further to modify the other liver functions by a direct action on the
hepatic cells, and by reducing the cohesion of fibrine, and promoting
the disintegration of albumen. Certain it is that calomel gives most
substantial relief in many torpid and other disorders of the liver and
as it is not in itself an active liver stimulant but has rather a soothing
action on that gland it can be safely resorted to in states of hepatic
irritation in which the more direct cholagogues would prove more or
less hurtful.
 In some forms of hepatic disorder where a speedy and abundant
secretion is demanded, pilocarpin may be employed, with great
caution so as not to reduce the strength unduly by the attendant
diaphoresis, diuresis, salivation or diarrhœa.
Alkalies have long been recognized as of great clinical value in
hepatic disorders. Though carbonate of soda decreases the secretion
of bile, (Nasse, Röhrig), yet the alkalies generally appear to promote
oxidation, and to hasten the disintegration of albumen and the
albuminoids. They increase the disintegration of sulphur compounds
materially adding to the sulphates and urea in the urine. They
further tend to increase the hippuric acid, carbonate of soda (2 drs.)
even determining the abundant excretion of this acid in man (Nasse).
It may be concluded that the acknowledged value of alkalies in these
diseases, is largely due to their hastening of the metabolic processes
in albuminoids. Small doses of sodium carbonate further stimulate
the gastric secretion and may thus benefit by rendering the process
of digestion more complete and satisfactory.
Chlorine, Iodine, Bromine and their Salts. These halogens are of
great value in many hepatic disorders. The universal craving for
sodium chloride indicates the need of its elements in the animal
body, and whether this is mainly the supply of chlorine for the
hydrochloric acid of the gastric juice, or to fulfill its uses in favoring
the oxidation and disintegration of the nitrogenous matters in the
blood and tissues, or for other more or less obscure uses, it is well to
recognize and act upon the indication. The various mineral waters
which are held in high esteem in liver affections contain a large
proportion of sodium chloride. As a medicinal agent ammonium
chloride maintains an equally high position. Large doses thrice a day,
so as to induce diaphoresis and diuresis greatly relieve hepatic
congestions. This agent determines a great increase in the urea
eliminated so that it is even more effective in the same direction,
than sodium chloride. Free chlorine is also effective in hepatic torpor
and congestion, and to this in part may be attributed the great value
of nitro-muriatic acid.
Bromide and iodide of potassium have been found to be effective
in reducing hepatic enlargement and thus in conducing to a more
healthy activity of the liver.
 Ipecacuanha, Euonymus, etc. These agents are more or less
hepatic stimulants and may be found beneficial as combined with the
laxative or alkaline agents in securing a better functional activity in
cases of torpor or deranged function.
Tonics, Bitters. Tonics are often useful when the health has been
undermined by long continued hepatic disorder. The iron tonics are
as a rule contraindicated as tending to check secretion of bile, unless
they can be given with alkalies. Iron sulphate or chloride, combined
with sodium or potassium carbonate so as to establish a mutual
decomposition will obviate this objection. The vegetable bitters
(gentian, cascarilla, calumba, salicin, serpentaria, aloes, nux vomica)
combined with alkalies are often of great value. Quinia, like opium,
checks secretion and is to be avoided or used with judgment and in
combination with cholagogues.
 HÆMOGLOBINÆMIA. AZOTÆMIA.
AZOTURIA. HÆMOGLOBINURIA. TOXÆMIA
FROM IMPERFECT HEPATIC FUNCTION.

Definition. Theories, of hysteria, uræmia, spinal myelitis, myelo-renal

congestion, rheumatic lumbago, myosito-myelo-nephritis, rheumatic chill with
destruction of muscle albuminoids. Yet it occurs in our semi-tropical midsummer
with a temperature of 80 or 90, in spring and autumn, and rarely even in the cold,
damp stable in midwinter in the absence of exercise. Constant conditions: One or
more days absolute rest, preceding steady work, a strongly nitrogenous ration,
continued during the rest, sudden active exertion accelerated breathing and
unloading of peptones and proteids from portal vein and liver into the general
circulation. Sanguineous albuminuria from excess of albuminous food, free
ingestion of water, suppressed milk secretion, forced marches. Transfusion of
blood. Excess of albumen dangerous, excess of red globules not dangerous. The
blood concentration of diuresis or diaphoresis is not dangerous. Continuous
muscle decomposition from work bars the disease. Stable miasm untenable. Poison
may be drawn suddenly from the enormous mass of blood in the liver, spleen and
portal system. The absence of icterus antagonizes the bile theory. Benzoic acid,
unaltered peptones, and glycogen are examples of elements destructive to blood.
Normal destruction of red globules in liver, spleen and bone marrow. Sudden
access of resulting hæmoglobin to the blood. Other products of disintegrated
globules. Poisons from food, and antitoxic action of liver in presence of glycogen.
Carbon dioxide favors solution of red globules. Theories of hæmoglobinæmia in
man. Lesions: Blood black, diffluent, iridescent, has no avidity for oxygen, with
excess of urea and extractives, serum of clot red, globules, small, pale, distorted,
not sticky, extravasations, liver, enlarged, congested, blood gorged, spleen
congested, swollen: Lumbar or gluteal muscles pale, infiltrated, with loss of
striation; bone marrow congested, hemorrhagic; kidneys congested infarcted;
urine dark brown or red, with excess of urea and hæmoglobin. End of spinal cord
has congestion or infiltration. Symptoms: History of high condition, constant
work, high feeding, a day’s rest, then exercise and attack. To full life, follows
flagging, droops, moves one or both hind limbs stiffly, knuckles, drags toes,
crouches, trembles, perspires, breathes rapidly, is tender on back, loins, croup or
thigh, muscles firm, paretic, and drops unable to rise. Urine retained, brown, red
or black, sometimes glairy, later may have casts. Appetite may return. In mild
cases, stiffness, lameness, with or without visible muscular lesions or tremors.
Urine glairy, dense, with excess of urea and nitrogenous products. Recover under
careful feeding and exercise, and relapse under original causes. Progress: May
recover under rest. In bad cases accelerated breathing and recumbency forbid rest
and recovery. Recovery in a few hours or after a week. Urinary casts with renal
epithelium, imply nephritis and grave conditions. In persistent paresis, muscles
waste. Modes of death. Mortality 20 per cent. Diagnosis, by history of onset, etc.
Prevention: When highly fed and hard worked, give daily exercise, with
comparative rest, reduce ration, and give laxative or diuretic. Plenty of water.
Treatment: Rest, sling, diffusible stimulants, bleeding, bromides, water ad libitum,
fomentations, unload liver and portal vein, purgative, eserine, barium chloride,
enemata, diuretics, for remaining paresis, derivatives, strychnia, diet, laxative,
non-stimulating, restore to work gradually.

Definition. An acute auto-poisoning occurring in plethoric horse

on being subjected to active exertion after a period of idleness, and
manifested by great nervous excitement and prostration, paresis
commencing with the hind limbs and the passage of hæmoglobin in
the urine.
Nature and Causes. The most varied conclusions as to the nature
of this disease have been put forward by different authors. In
England, Haycock called it hysteria, mistakenly supposing that it was
confined to mares, and Williams attributed it to uræmic poisoning,
conveniently ignoring the fact that the sudden manifestation of the
most extreme symptoms in an animal which just before was in the
highest apparent health and spirits contradicted the conclusion. In
France (Trasbot) and Southern Europe (Csokor) it has been looked
on as a spinal myelitis, a conclusion based on the disturbed
innervation of the posterior extremities in the great majority of
cases, but which is not always sustained by the pathological anatomy
of the cord. In Germany veterinarians have viewed the disease from
widely different standpoints. Haubner calls it myelo-renal-
congestion (Nièren-Rückenmarks): Weinmann, a rheumatic
lumbago; Dieckerhoff defines it as an acute general disease of horses,
manifested by a severe parenchymatous inflammation of the
skeleton muscles, with a bloody infiltration of the bone marrow,
especially of the femur, and with acute nephritis and
hæmoglobinuria. He attributes the attack to exposure to cold. If this
were the real cause the attack would be far more common in very
cold weather when the horse is suddenly exposed to cold drafts
between open doors and windows, than when he is harnessed and
driven so as to generate and diffuse animal heat. Yet attacks in the
stable are virtually unknown, and in almost every instance the onset
occurs during a short drive. Friedberger and Fröhner say that the
epithet rheumatismal may be correctly applied to almost all cases
that we meet in practice. They quote Goring as having produced the
disease experimentally by exposure to cold, and go on to explain that
rest in the stable before the attack causes the extreme sensitiveness
to cold that is generated by a warm environment. The implication of
the lumbar, pelvic and femoral muscles they explain by the
stimulation of the nutritive metamorphosis by the action of cold on
the sensitive nerves of the skin. The effect of this cutaneous irritation
is exaggerated by the heat of the stable to which they have been
previously subjected. The products of the destruction of the
albuminoids of the muscles, pass into the blood as hæmoglobin, and
produce the ulterior phenomena. The muscles of the hind quarters
especially suffer because of their greater exposure and because they
are subjected to the hardest work in propelling the animal machine.
In this connection they quote the experiments of Lassar and
Nassaroff in which sudden exposure to cold determines
parenchymatous degeneration of muscles; also the cases of
paroxysmal or winter hæmoglobinuria in certain susceptible men
whenever they are exposed to an extremely low temperature.
There are serious objections to the acceptance of this as the
essential cause, among which the following may be named:
1st. The disease is not confined to the cold season but occurs also
at midsummer when the outdoor temperature is even higher than it
is in the stable.
2d. In our Northern States it appears to be more common in spring
and autumn or early winter, when the extreme colds have either
already passed, or have not yet set in, but when the abrupt changes
of weather (rain-storms, etc.) are liable to shut up the animal indoors
for a day or more at a time.
3d. The popular names quoted with approval by these authors—
Monday disease, Easter disease, Whitsuntide disease—indicate the
prevalence in Europe also, of the malady in the milder, or more
temperate seasons rather than during the prevalence of extreme
cold.
 4th. The fact that the disease rarely or never occurs in the stable,
no matter how cold the season, how open the wooden walls or floor,
nor how strong the draft between doors or windows, shows that the
theory of cold as the sole or main cause must be discarded.
It is not necessary to ignore the action of cold as a concurrent
factor in certain cases, or as a stimulant to reflex vaso-motor paresis,
to muscular metamorphosis and the increase of hæmoglobin in the
blood. It is only necessary that this should be held as subordinate
and non-essential to the final result. Several other factors that are
accorded a subordinate place by these writers, are so constant and so
manifestly essential that they must be allotted a much more
important position in the list of causes.
A period of rest is a constant precursor of an attack. The more
extended the inquiry the more certain we become that a short rest is
a prerequisite to equine hæmoglobinæmia. The horse that is kept at
daily steady work may be said to be practically exempt. Even the
non-professional observer recognizes the fact and names the disease
after the weekly or yearly holiday or rest day which was the occasion
of it. To him it is the Monday morning disease, the disease of the day
following Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year, or Fourth of July. It is
the disease of wet weather, of heavy snowfalls, of the blizzard, or of
the owner’s absence from home, of any time that entails one or two
days of absolute inactivity in the stall.
But again the affection does not appear in the horse that is
absolutely idle for a length of time. It is the short period of rest in
an interval of otherwise continuous work that determines it.
In short the subject must be in good muscular condition and with a
hearty, vigorous appetite and good digestion. The short unwonted
rest interrupts the disposal of the rich products of a vigorous
digestion, and tends to overload the portal veins, the liver, the blood
and tissues with an excess of proteids. The condition of the animal is
so far one of plethora.
Another feature that bears this out is that the attack comes only in
the animal that is heavily fed on a strongly nitrogenous
ration. It is not the disease of the horse kept on straw, or hay, or
which receives a limited amount only of grain. It does not occur in
the animal which has its grain suspended or materially reduced
during the one or two days of idleness. It does not select the horse
that has had a laxative either in the form of food or medicine. This
last may increase the sensitiveness to cold, but it certainly lessens the
tendency to hæmoglobinæmia. The most rational explanation
appears to be that it affords this protection by interfering with the
thoroughness of digestion and absorption, by securing elimination
from the portal veins and liver, and by reducing the amount of
albuminoids in the blood.
A blood abnormally rich in albuminoids, as it is in the transient
plethora induced by a short period of rest, in the well-conditioned
working horse, without any restriction of his diet, may therefore be
set down as one of the most important factors in producing
hæmoglobinæmia. Nor is this without approximate examples in
human pathology. Von Bamberger has shown that “hæmatogenous
albuminuria” will occur in healthy individuals when there is an
excess of albumen in the blood-plasma, as after a too free use of
albuminous food, or after suppression of the milk secretion
(Landois). A similar result comes from increase of blood pressure, as
after drinking freely, or when, under emotion or violent exertion, the
heart’s action is increased in force and the blood is thrown with
greater impetus into the large renal arteries. Senator has found
albuminous urine to attend and follow, for several days, upon forced
marches made by young recruits. Here the muscular work is added to
the increased blood tension superinduced by the more active
contractions of the heart.
In this connection it is interesting to trace the changes in the blood
after transfusion. The dilatability of the capillaries enables the
system to accommodate itself to a very great increase in the volume
of blood An increase of 83 per cent. may be borne without serious
results, but above this limit there is increasing risk and an increase of
150 per cent. entails immediate danger to life. In the restoration of
the blood to its normal condition, the secretion of water sets in
promptly leaving an excess of albuminoids and blood globules. The
next change is in the albuminoids which in two days are almost
entirely transformed into urea. This leaves the blood abnormally rich
in globules (Panum, Lesser, Worm-Müller), the red globules break
up much more slowly and may still be in excess after the lapse of a
month (Tscherjew).
 In this light, temporary plethora cannot of itself be accepted as the
main or essential cause of the disease. It must be admitted to be a
more constant and important factor than the mere exposure to cold,
but of itself it is inadequate to the production of hæmoglobinæmia.
In the absence of exertion the general plethora fails to produce the
specific disease; again, after transfusion a plethora of albumen lasts
for one or two days, but hæmoglobinæmia sets in only in the first few
minutes after the animal starts out from the stable, (never after an
hour or two at work): once more, excess of globules may last for a
month, but with steady work there is no danger of this disease, after
the first mile or two has been traversed, on the first day of the
resumption of labor.
A similar plethora of albuminoids and globules may be induced in
a plethoric animal by a profuse diarrhœa, diuresis or perspiration,
the blood having been robbed of its watery constituents, and
concentrated especially as regards its globules and albuminoids, but
hæmoglobinæmia never occurs as the result of such an artificial
concentration. On the contrary a free secretion by the bowels or
kidneys is of the greatest value in cutting short its progress after it
has set in.
The doctrine of poisoning by hæmoglobin produced by excessive
work and disintegration of the muscles is equally insufficient to
account for an attack. Excess of muscular work and of muscle-
decomposition-products, would not reach its maximum within the
first few minutes after the animal has started from the stable, but,
other things being equal, would increase with the continuance of
work and the accumulation in the blood of a constantly increasing
amount of these products. The sharp line of restriction by which the
attack is limited to the initial period of work, while it is never seen
after hard work continued for hours in succession, rules out this
from the list of essential causes. It may be that the products of
muscular decomposition aggravate the attack, but to set them down
as the cause of the attack is to beg the whole question and to
contradict the truth that continuous and severe muscular work with
its consequent increase of waste products is a direct bar to the
development of the disease. It should be noted in this connection
that the increase in the waste of nitrogenous bodies, as shown by the
increase of urea, is dependent far more on the amount of nitrogenous
matters ingested than on the muscle work or decomposition. In
eleven hours just before ascending the Faulhorn, Fick passed 21.686
grs. of urea per hour; in eight hours ascending the hill, 12.43 grs. per
hour; and in six hours after the ascent he passed 13.39 grs. per hour.
A general survey of the field shows that it is not the simple
increase of any normal waste product in the blood which determines
hæmoglobinæmia, and on the other hand the suddenness and
severity of the attack bears all the marks of a profound poisoning.
The nature of the poison has not yet been definitely ascertained, yet
one or two hypothesis may be hazarded, as furnishing a working
theory, in anticipation of the actual demonstration which may be
expected in the early future.
The action of a stable miasm as claimed by some writers is
contradicted by the fact that the disease does not develop so long as
the animal is left to inhale that miasm, and on leaving the stable, the
life and vigor are usually remarkable.
The morbific agent must be sought in some source from which it
can be supplied with great rapidity under the stimulus of a short but
active exertion. The chylopoietic viscera furnish such a source. The
healthy liver contains one-fourth of the entire mass of the blood. The
torpid congested liver of the vigorous high conditioned horse, after a
short period of idleness, on full, rich feeding, must hold much more
than this normal ratio. The spleen, the natural store-house or safety
valve of the portal veins, is also gorged with this liquid in the high
fed, idle animal. This organ which is always turgescent after meals, is
especially so in the over-fed horse, which for twenty-four hours has
been denied the opportunity of working off by exercise, the
superfluous products of an active digestion and absorption. Then the
whole of the portal veins and the capillaries in which they originate
are surcharged with rich blood which cannot make its way with the
necessary dispatch through the inactive liver.
In this condition there is incomparably more than a quarter of the
entire mass of blood, enriched to the highest degree in proteids,
ready to be discharged through the liver and hepatic veins into the
general circulation. Under the action of the hurried breathing and
circulation, caused by the sudden and active exertion, this whole
mass of rich blood is speedily unloaded on the right heart, the lungs
and the systemic circulation. One can hardly conceive of a more
effective method of inducing a sudden plethora, with an excess of
both globules and albuminoids.
The presence of actual poisons in such blood is not so easily
certified.
The absorption of bile elements and especially of taurocholic acid,
which is a solvent of the red blood globules, and would set free their
globulin might account for the characteristic condition of the blood.
The powerful aspiratory action of the chest, would speedily empty
the whole of the liver blood vessels, and lessening their tension below
that of the biliary radicals would determine an active absorption of
bile or of the more diffusible of the bile elements. A manifest
objection to this view is the absence of an icteric tint in the mucous
membranes of the affected animals. The visible mucosæ are of a
brownish red hue, such as might come from hæmoglobin dissolved
in the blood serum, rather than the yellow tint which might be
expected from bile pigment. The theory of poisoning by bile acids
therefore, would require an explanation of concurrent suppression or
decomposition of the bile pigments.
Other sources, however, offer solvents for hæmoglobin, benzoic
acid, which is derived from a cellulose in the fodders, and forms the
source of hippuric acid, dissolves red globules (Landois). In the over-
fed horse with active digestion, but inactive body and liver, this must
accumulate in the liver, spleen and portal system, and when
suddenly drawn into the blood without time for oxidation in the liver
it will contribute to the condition of hæmoglobinæmia.
Peptones, being very diffusible, are very rapidly absorbed, but they
are not found, in healthy conditions, in the portal vein (Neumeister).
These are manifestly transformed into albumen in the intestinal
mucosa (Salvioli), or taken up by the very numerous leucocytes and
transformed or carried elsewhere (Hoffmeister). But peptones
injected into the blood of the dog render it incoagulable, and in large
quantity are fatal (Landois). An excess of glycogen dissolves the red
globules, and the conditions of heavy feeding and torpid liver, are
calculated to produce this in great excess and to store it in the liver
cells.
Under the extra vigorous aspiratory force of the chest, these highly
diffusible agents, present in great excess, are likely to be drawn on
through the mucosa, into the portal vein, liver, and cava, without an
opportunity for complete transformation by leucocytes or liver cells.
These would tend to rob the blood globules of their normal
physiological vigor, would unfit them for maintaining the healthy
functions of lungs, kidneys, brain or muscle, and would unfit the
globules for successful resistance to solvents and other inimical
influences.
Again it is an important function of the liver, spleen and red bone
marrow to disintegrate worn out or abnormal red globules. These are
taken up by the white blood corpuscles of the hepatic capillaries, by
the cells of the spleen and the bone marrow and are stored up chiefly
in the capillaries of the liver, in the spleen, and in the marrow of
bone. They are transformed, partly into colored and partly into
colorless proteids, and are either deposited in the granular form, or
are dissolved (Landois). Quincke says: “That the normal red blood
globules and other particles suspended in the blood stream are not
taken up in this way, may be due to their being smooth and polished.
As the corpuscles grow older and become more rigid, they, as it were,
are caught by the amœboid cells. As cells containing blood corpuscles
are very rarely found in the general circulation, one may assume that
the occurrence of these cells within the spleen, liver, and marrow of
bone, is favored by the slowness of the circulation in these organs.”
From this chain of normal processes of blood disintegration, we may
reasonably infer, a greatly exaggerated work of blood destruction
when, in connection with an increased density of the plasma, and the
presence in the portal blood of poisonous products of digestion, the
red globules have been altered in density, in outline and in vitality, so
that they become ready victims of the amœboid cells of blood and
tissues. Then the stagnant condition of this altered blood in the
compulsorily idle animal favors the greatest excess of this
destruction and the storing up of an increased quantity of
hæmoglobin and other products, to be poured suddenly into the
general circulation as soon as the movement of the blood is
quickened by exercise.
This destruction of the red blood globules by disintegration
contributes to the formation of numerous decomposition-products,
like succinic, formic, acetic, butyric and lactic acids, inosite, leucin,
xanthine, hypoxanthin, and uric acid, some of which are strongly
toxic. The tendency will be to lower the vitality of the red globules
and thus to render them the easier victims of the leucocytes and of
the liver, spleen and marrow cells. Even the freed hæmoglobin
appears to exert a solvent action on the red blood globules. These
are, of course, most concentrated and effective in the seat of their
production, yet when drawn suddenly in large amount, into the
general circulation, by the vigorous aspiratory action of the chest,
they may prove seriously detrimental to the blood at large.
Again a variety of toxic matters are introduced into the system in
the food and others are developed from the food in the stomach and
intestine. Brieger found in the gastric peptones a potent alkaloid
having the effect of urari, and which in excess would determine
muscular paralysis. The alkaloidal and other poisons produced by
fermentations in the intestines have to be safely disposed of. The
ptomaines, if not too abundant, are arrested or even decomposed in
the liver which thus stands as a guardian, at the outlet of the portal
system, to protect the body at large. But this antitoxic function of the
liver is only exercised in the presence of glycogen (Rogers, Landois),
and forced muscular movement soon removes all glycogen from the
liver of the dog (Landois). Again glycogenesis in the liver is now
believed to be dependent on a ferment produced by the pancreas. If
therefore, the sudden active exercise and the aspiratory action of the
chest freed the liver of its glycogen, and hurried the alkaloidal and
other poisons through its capillaries too rapidly to allow of the
protective action of the liver cells, or if the pancreas as well as the
liver had become torpid and had failed to produce the requisite
amount of glycogen-ferment for the liver, the poisoning of the blood
and system at large would be imminent.
Not to mention the other toxic products which come from
imperfect metamorphosis in the liver, it may be noted that a venous
condition of the blood or an excess of carbon dioxide contributes
greatly to the solubility of the red blood globules. It also tends greatly
to modify the fibrinogenous elements. Thus the blood of a suffocated
animal fails to coagulate or coagulates loosely, and the blood of the
portal vein of a suffocated horse is strongly toxic (Sauson). Now the
conditions attendant on the onset of equine hæmoglobinæmia are
such as to give free scope to both of these inimical influences. The
great mass of blood in the portal vein, spleen and liver is venous
blood strongly charged with carbon dioxide, and by the sudden,
active exertion this is forced rapidly through the liver and lungs
without time for full æration, so that the whole mass of the
circulating blood is speedily reduced below par, and laid specially
open to the action of blood solvents. By the same action the systemic
blood is charged with poisons, direct from the food, and fermenting
ingesta, and from the overworked spleen and liver whose functions
are profoundly impaired, and later from other important organs, the
healthy functional activity of which can no longer be maintained by
the deteriorated blood supplied to them.
Hæmoglobinæmia in dogs has been produced experimentally by
the injection of water into the veins the mere dilution of the plasma
dissolving out the coloring matter from the red globules (Hayem);
also by the inhalation of arseniureted hydrogen (Naunyn and
Stadelman); by the ingestion of toluylendiamine, or phosphorus
(Afanassiew, Stadelman); by snake venom, septicæmia, influenza,
contagious pneumonia, petechial fever, anthrax, etc. These cannot be
looked on as causes of the acute hæmoglobinæmia in the horse, but
they serve as illustrations of changes in the plasma, and poisons in
the blood determining the escape of hæmoglobin from the cells.
Ralfe recognizes two forms of hæmoglobinæmia in man:
1st. That in which the hæmoglobin is simply dissolved out of the
blood globules, the solution taking place chiefly in parts exposed to
cold.
2d. A more severe form in which the dissolution is general and
probably attended by some destruction of red globules in the liver,
spleen and even in the kidneys. The general opinion appears to be
that the attacks are due to some nervous disturbance, which causes
vaso-motor disorder and it is supposed that there is an exaggerated
sensibility of the reflex nervous system. It has been suggested that
peripheral irritation causes irritation of the vaso-motor centre, and
in turn this causes local asphyxia in the part stimulated, under which
conditions the red globules part with their hæmoglobin (Roberts).
Murri holds that the disease depends on an increased irritability of
the vaso-motor reflex centre, and the formation, owing to the
disorder of the blood forming organs, of corpuscles unable to
withstand exposure to cold or carbon dioxide.
 While it is not assumed to point out the actual poisons of
hæmoglobinæmia in the horse the above suggestions may offer
valuable hints as to the lines of inquiry that may be followed with the
best hope of reaching definite results.
Lesions. These are especially found in the blood, liver, spleen,
muscles, bone marrow and kidneys. The spinal cord and nerve
trunks are occasionally affected.
The blood is charged with carbon dioxide and is black, tarry,
comparatively incoagulable remaining in the veins and showing an
iridescent reflection. It does not absorb oxygen readily though
exposed to the air, and thus bears a strong general resemblance to
the blood of anthrax. It contains an abnormal proportion of urea and
allied extractive matters which greatly increase its density, and
interfere with the healthy exercise of the different cell organisms and
functions. These are not due to excessive muscular activity as stated
by Friedberger and Fröhner, but are derived mainly from the
abundant products of digestion. When the shed blood coagulates it
forms a soft clot without buff and the expressed serum is reddish
from the presence of hæmoglobin, and of hæmatoidin crystals. The
uncoagulated blood drawn over a sheet of white paper stains it
deeply by reason of the same coloring matters in solution. The red
corpuscles may be paler than natural, some even entirely colorless,
and they are often notched or broken up in various irregular forms.
They have lost the natural tendency of the shed equine blood to stick
together, to collect in rouleaux and precipitate to the bottom of the
vessel, so that no buffy coat is formed, should the blood coagulate.
The white corpuscles are relatively increased. Finally the coloring
matters contained in the plasma are imbibed by the different tissues
and give a brown or reddish tinge to such as are naturally white.
Limited blood extravasations are not uncommon especially in the
more vascular organs like the muscles, liver, spleen and kidneys.
The liver is more or less congested and enlarged, friable, yellow, or
mottled yellow and red and exudes black blood freely when incised.
The bile is thick, viscid and dark green, as in cases of experimental
intravenous injection of hæmoglobin.
The spleen is also swollen and congested with blood, and the pulp
is very high colored from the excess of hæmoglobin and other
products of blood destruction. The muscles of the croup are usually