Abstract
Global climate changes are having a severe impact on India’s agricultural sector in impoverished rural areas. Addressed in this study, many who have depended upon agriculture are experiencing climatic changes, leading to problems in sustaining secure livelihoods. To mitigate this risk, other sources of income need to be introduced to supplement agricultural income. This paper examines alternative income sources that provide an option for a sustainable income in a rural village of West Bengal, India. The prevalent technologies available in the village were assessed, besides those introduced, to realize sustainable augmented income goals. Studies revealed that village resources comprised fishponds, a poultry farm for producing and selling eggs, and small-scale kitchen gardens. Results also showed a lack of knowledge of other ways of additional income generation among villagers. Close observation of the current occupational practices determined that technological innovations could be introduced to maximize available village resources for improved sustainable income, concurrent with traditional agricultural activities. For example, an innovative engineering design can increase vegetable gardening and sales through a sophisticated system of maximizing outcomes in a small space, introducing watering technologies and temperature modifiers.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
11 Facts About Global Poverty—DoSomething.org—Volunteer for. https://www.dosometing.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-global-poverty. Accessed 5 Feb 2018
Out-of-School Children—Global Partnership for Education. https://www.globalpartnersip.org/focus-areas/out-of-school-children. Accessed 5 Feb 2018
Alkire, S., Seth, S.: Multidimensional poverty reduction in India between 1999 and 2006: Where and how? World Dev. 72, 93–108 (2015)
Chauhan, R.K., Mohanty, S.K., Subramanian, S.V., Parida, J.K., Padhi, B.: Regional estimates of poverty and inequality in India, 1993–2012. Soc. Ind. Res. 127(3), 1249–1296 (2016)
Sarkar, S., Padaria, R.N.: Farmers’ awareness and risk perception about climate change in coastal ecosystem of West Bengal. Indian Res. J. Extension Educ. 10(2), 32–38 (2016)
Viswanathan, B., Kumar, K.K.: Weather, agriculture and rural migration: evidence from state and district level migration in India. Environ. Dev. Econ. 20(4), 469–492 (2015)
Ramesh, M.V., Mohan, R., Menon, S.: Live-in-labs: rapid translational research and implementation-based program for rural development in India. In: GHTC 2016—IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference: Technology for the Benefit of Humanity, Conference Proceedings (2016)
Rajeshkumar, A., Balusamy, M.: The effect of different fish feeding methods on growth performance and fish yield in composite fish culture system (2017)
Ramesh, M.V., Nibi, K.V., Kurup, A., Mohan, R., Aiswarya, A., Arsha, A., Sarang, P.R.: Water quality monitoring and waste management using IoT. In: 2017 IEEE Global Humanitarian Technology Conference (GHTC), pp. 1–7. IEEE (2017)
Handbook on Fisheries and Aquaculture Technology. https://books.google.com/books. Accessed 5 Feb 2018
Wohlfarth, G.W., Schroeder, G.L.: Use of manure in fish farming—a review. Agric. Wastes 1(4), 279–299 (1979)
Kalita, H.K., Talukdar, B., Baishya, R.A., Basumatary, S., Das, J., Dutta, A., Sarma, D.: Role of duck droppings on pond. Productivity through fish-cum-duck integrated farming system in agro climatic condition, Assam. Nat. Environ. Pollut. Technol. 14(3), 541 (2015)
Kadiveti, H., et al.: Water management through integrated technologies, a sustainable approach for village Pandori, India. In: 2019 IEEE R10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10-HTC) (47129). IEEE (2019)
Nair, R., et al.: Community development and energy equality: experiences from micro hydro implementation in a tribal settlement in India. In: 2016 IEEE Region 10 Humanitarian Technology Conference (R10-HTC), Agra, India, pp. 1–7 (2016). http://doi.org/10.1109/R10-HTC.2016.7906794
Acknowledgements
This research was funded by Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham’s Live-in-Labs® program, and the field implementation was funded by the UN-recognized NGO, MA Math. The study was conducted as part of the UNESCO Chair for Experiential Learning for Sustainable Innovation Development. The authors express their immense gratitude to Sri. Mata Amritanandamayi Devi, Chancellor of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, who has inspired them in performing selfless service to society. The authors would also like to express their sincere appreciation to Mr. Gopalaiengar Sheshadri for his extensive support in enhancing the quality of the paper within the limited time frame. The authors also thank the faculty, staff, and students of Amrita Vishwa Vidyapeetham, the government authorities of Kalinagar, West Bengal, and also the Amrita SeRVe program staff.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2022 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this paper
Cite this paper
Vishnu Priya, P.S. et al. (2022). Exploration of Technology-Driven Income Sources for an Agricultural Community in West Bengal, India. In: Senjyu, T., Mahalle, P., Perumal, T., Joshi, A. (eds) IOT with Smart Systems. Smart Innovation, Systems and Technologies, vol 251. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3945-6_53
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-16-3945-6_53
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-16-3944-9
Online ISBN: 978-981-16-3945-6
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)