Determinants of livelihood diversification strategies: The case of smallholder rural farm households in Debre Elias Woreda, East Gojjam Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Smallholder rural farm households face an increasing need of looking for alternative income sources to supplement their small scale agricultural activities. However, livelihood diversification is determined by complex and yet empirically untested factors in Debre Elias Woreda. Thus, the aim of this study is to assess the determinants of livelihood diversification strategies in the study area. The data were collected through both primary and secondary data collection methods. The data were obtained from 160 sample household heads that were selected through a combination of two-stage, purposive and simple random sampling techniques. The descriptive statistics were used to identify the livelihood strategies and the livelihood assets. The finding of the survey result indicates that much of the rural households (61%) in the study area practice diversified livelihood strategies that combined on-farm activities with non/off-farm activities. Multinomial logit model applied to investigate the determinant factors influencing the households' choice of livelihood strategies. In this regard, the econometric analysis demonstrated that out of the total sixteen variables included in the model only seven variables including land size, livestock holding size, sex of household head, mass media, market distance, total annual household income, and urban linkage are found to be the significant determinants up to 10% probability levels. The results of this study suggest that both agricultural intensification and non/offfarm diversification should be strengthened to attain smallholder households' livelihood security.

Review on Rural Livelihood Diversification Strategies in Ethiopia

“…The possible reason can be a smaller amount of cultivated land is not enough to the households to make a sufficient living from farm production alone, causing them to work for supplementary non/off farm income generating activities. This finding is in agreement with that of Yenesew et al, (2015).…”

“…Contrary to this result, Yenesew et al, (2015) found negative correlation between market distance and livelihood diversification. Credit facilities (CREDCOST): As expected, access to formal credit was found to have a positive effect on the level of livelihood diversification at 1 percent level of significance.…”

Determinants and challenges of rural livelihood diversification in Ethiopia: Qualitative review

“…In Ethiopia, most of the studies conducted identify three rural livelihood diversification strategies: on farm, nonfarm and off farm (Mengistie and Kidane, 2016;Debele and Desta, 2016;Gecho, 2017;Kassie et al, 2017;Teklu et al, 2017;Yona and Mathewos, 2017;Ofolsha and Mansingh, 2015;Dadi, 2016;Asfir, 2016;Addisu, 2017;Yizengaw et al, 2015). Authors mention crop production and livestock rearing as major activities of on farm livelihood activities.…”

Determinants of Rural Households Livelihood Diversification Strategies in Kuarit District, West Gojjam Zone of, Amhara Region, Ethiopia

“…Currently, there is a growing evidence that rural households in rural Ethiopia are participated in diverse livelihood strategies away from purely crop and livestock production towards non-farm and off-farm activities that are undertaken to broaden and generate additional income for survival and cope with different livelihood shocks, trends, and seasonality associated with agricultural production [6][7][8]. However, their participation is determined by various contextual factors such as Agro-ecology, educational level of the household, land size, livestock ownership, total income, family size, access to credit service, remittance receiving, dependency ratio [9][10][11].…”

“…Though there are many livelihood studies done in the world and Ethiopia, few scientific works [11][12][13], had been done in Amhara region in relation to factors that could influence the choice of livelihood diversification strategies and they were not able to give enough information on exiting livelihood strategies and its determinant. This could be due to the disparity in the effect of factors affecting livelihood diversification strategies at different locations with different livelihood outcomes [12].…”