What a pleasure to find, at long last, a book on rural livelihoods which does not package sustainability through the straightjacket of assessment, numbers and capital' - Development and Change Livelihood systems are much more than sets of material and economic conditions. They have to cater to a large number of human needs including food and shelter. The contributors to this important volume adopt a holistic approach to understanding rural livelihood systems. They maintain that a livelihood system embraces not just economic conditions for physical subsistence, but all the elements that provide material continuity and cultural meaning to the life of a family in a community. This book tries to understand `rural livelihood systems' from different angles and throws light on the question of what people need in order to feel secure within their systems.