yes Capital approach especially livelihood asset mapping based on five capitals can be used in hilly areas too for diversified livelihood analysis

Dear Chandra

Thank you so much for your answer and suggestion.

I think Capital approach is not good for peasant agriculture. I suggest to revisit the social reproduction strategies used in Latin America. You can look for Oliveira y Salles. Because peasants do not have capitals, they have heritages

You can review this papers http://www.eldis.org/vfile/upload/1/document/0901/section2.pdf

http://www.sasnet.lu.se/EASASpapers/20SunethraThennakoon.pdf

http://english.imde.cas.cn/rh/rp/201403/P020140328420831582925.pdf

I think a sustainable livelihood approach should be used since a livelihood is encompassed of capabilities, assets and activities required for a means of living.The Sustainable livelihood approach makes use of very important assets which include human, natural, financial, social and physical capital . Human assets are comprised of health, education, formal and informal skills.  Physical assets includes tools, shelter, and shared infrastructure such as roads and communication Networks, financial assets includes income, savings, and access to credit. Furthermore, social assets include extended families, community networks, formal and informal institutions, mutual support associations, trust, business relationships and natural assets is comprised of natural resources such as land, forests, water, soil, fish, etc. (Lyons, 2006:3). This approach is all encompassing hence l think its the best approach in terms of livelihoods.

The livelihood concept has changed with time. It is not only bare minimum of food, clothing and shelter. The food should include nutritious food according to the health standard requirement, reasonable clothing for adequate shelter from cold and summer, shelter with minimum living requirements of the family including proper sanitation. Apart from these, medical, education and other such essential amenities are part of livelihood. 

That,s true and good changing idea.

Please use capital approach. But it will yield good result if you can develop a set of asset portfolio analysis supported by entitlement matrix. It will still give better result if you can interpret the "capitals" as per the local and regional socio-cultural and traditional units for assessment. Depend on a seasonal and recipropcity model.

there are different livelihood appraoches (UNDP, Oxfam, DFID), which differ slightly from each other. They are all suitable to design a research project. Best is to define indicators to measure the different livelihood capitals.....