The present research study was conducted in rainfed areas of Koppal district of Karnataka during the year 2011- 12. Koppal district was purposively selected as it receives the lowest rainfall when compared to other districts of Hyderabad Karnataka region. The ex-post facto research design was used with a sample size of 120 respondents, which consist of 60 marginal farmers and 60 landless labourers for the study. It was observed that Socio Economic Status (SES) of majority landless labourers was relatively lower when compared to marginal farmers. Cent per cent of marginal farmers were engaged in crop production as their livelihood activity, followed by wage earning (85.00 %), dairy (33.33 %), sheep /goat rearing

(6.67 %), backyard poultry (6.67 %), and petty business (5.00 %) Whereas, in case of landless labourers cent per cent were involved in wage earning, followed by others (28.33 %), sheep/goat rearing (13.33 %), backyard poultry (13.33 %) and petty business (10.00 %). About fourty four per cent (43.33 %) were engaged in Crop + wage earning livelihood system, followed by crop + dairy + wage earning (23.33 %), crop + dairy (10.00 %), Crop + wage earning + other (6.67 %) and crop + sheep/ goat rearing +wage earning (6.67 %), crop + backyard poultry + wage earning (5.0 %), With regard to landless labourers 40.00 per cent engaged in wage earning livelihood system, followed by wage earning + other (28.33 %), wage earning + sheep/goat rearing + backyard poultry (13.33 %), wage earning + petty business (10.00 %) and wage earning + dairy (8.33 %).