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Realizing strong linkages existing between household and farm-and-forest, this book analyzes these relationships using an un-ordered multinomial logistic regression model within the framework of peasant ecology theory. The study area is the Tarai region which was considered as a defensive barrier against the British Raj until the late 1940s. However, after the late 1950s, this region started experiencing rapid population growth due to migration resulting into agriculture intensification and deforestation. Farmers have started different survival alternatives including the off-farm employment (OFE) both at local and distant locations. This research observed that degree of peasants´ dependence on on-farm and OFE varies based on major determinant factors, which include families´ cultural background, socio-economic and demographic conditions, presence or absence of various types of roads and forests near settlements, farm sizes and their ownership types, levels of family education, fuel sources, and location of job centers. This study fits within the framework of rural poverty and agrarian change embedded in land tenure systems in many developing countries.

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Keshav Bhattarai is Professor in the Department of Geography at University of Central Missouri. His specialties are land use and land cover changes, natural resource economics, urban planning, spatial modeling, cultural geography, demography, migration, peasant ecology, transportation, tourism, and contemporary environmental issues.

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