In the villages participating in this research most households are primarily engaged in agriculture which forms the backbone of their livelihoods. Agriculture may be practised in a village or residents of one village will go to another providing agricultural labour or for share cropping. Agriculture is thus of prime importance to the local communities at Varanasi in both the urban and peri-urban areas. In any discussions about agriculture, the women and men farmers would be naturally referring to crop and vegetable cultivation and livestock rearing. As expressed by them, the present role of agriculture is not only in terms of overall livelihood, employment and income generation but is also in terms of the critical support it provides for overcoming seasonal poverty, in so far as food and livelihood security on a seasonal basis is concerned.
Agriculture provides a source of multiple livelihoods.
It is a source of both direct and indirect employment. It serves as an asset base, for consumption, for income, savings, investment, collateral, as a source of risk coverage and provides raw materials and markets to the villagers. In terms of income, agricultural activities serve a dual purpose, as a source for household consumption and as either the main or supplementary income. In the villages studied, for example, households consumed mainly the cereals grown whereas their vegetables were mainly marketed. Trends show an occupational shift from agriculture to services even though there is considerable dependence of villagers on agriculture.