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Abstract
Tribal agriculture is at cross roads in India today. The tribal farmers are gradually discarding shifting cultivation in favor of settled agriculture. Shifting cultivation is thus is low productivity and result in soil erosion and land degradation. Whereas the settled agriculture has the advantage of protecting the soil and fertility, land improvement, providing for irrigation and application of modern chemical and fertilizers pesticides etc,. Therefore settled agriculture practice improves the agriculture productivity and increase the rate of return on land. The jenukuruba, kadukuruba, Solig and Yarava tribes living in Chamarajanagara and Mysore districts have been gradually changing over from shifting cultivation to settled agriculture particularly after the rehabilitation and resettlement of the tribes. The state government and NGOs are supporting to development the agriculture in tribal area. But the lack of land holdings and title deed on their land, problem of irrigation, lack of agriculture finance through institutional sources, problem of marketing and transportation, problem of wild animals are the main obstacles for develop the agriculture in tribal area. For the sustainable development of agriculture in tribal area suitable along with the NGOs role, special state policy and programmes, private participation to motive and create awareness among the trines is also very important.