Socio-Psychological Drivers of Livelihood Diversification in Lakshadweep Beevi Anshida1, Wason Monika2, Padaria R. N.2, Kumbhare N.V.3, Varghese Eldho4 1PhD Scholar, Division of Agricultural Extension, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi-12 2Principal Scientists, Division of Agricultural Extension, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi-12 3Scientist, Division of Agricultural Extension, ICAR-IARI, New Delhi-12 4Scientist, Division of Design of Experiments, ICAR-IASRI, New Delhi-12 Online published on 22 February, 2017. Abstract Diversification is the incorporation of new activities into the economic portfolio. The rural livelihood diversification therefore is an integral dimension of development agenda for strengthening rural livelihood and sustaining livelihood security. The study was conducted among 120 households in Kalpeni and Andrott islands of U.T. of Lakshadweep to assess the extent of diversification and to analyse the socio-psychological factors promoting diversification. Respondents were randomly selected and categorized into three livelihood classes based on the share of agriculture in households'income. Extent of livelihood diversification is studied in terms of number of income sources of a household and Simpson index of diversification. It is obtained that most of the households were having diverse livelihood strategy. It has been found that majority of the diversified households have medium diversification index with average diversification index of 0.32. Determinants of diversification were analyzed using Kruskal-Wallis test. It was found out that mass media exposure was the most significant factor leading to diversification followed by social participation, change proneness and achievement motivation. Top Keywords House hold income, livelihood diversification, socio-psychological drivers. Top |