Rural household′s livelihood strategy choices in West Badawcho District, Central Ethiopia: a multivariate probit model approach

Diversifying rural livelihoods plays a significant role for rain feed-dependent economy of the rural households like in Ethiopia. Hence the objective of the study was to investigate the determinants of rural households' livelihood diversification strategies choice in north wollo zone of Ethiopia. A multi-stage stratified random sampling technique was used to select 384 rural household heads as a sample in study areas. Primary data was collected from sample rural household heads using an interview schedule. Multivariate Probit Model was employed to identify the factors influencing the rural household heads' decision to choose livelihood strategies. The model result showed that agriculture livelihood strategy was positively and significantly associated with male headed household, land holding, cooperative membership, and participation in rural productive safety net program; while it is negatively and significantly affected by distance to market. Non-farm livelihood strategy was positively and significantly affected by dependency ratio, education level, total income, and remittance; while it is negatively and significantly affected by the sex of household head and participation in rural productive safety net program. Off-farm livelihood strategy was positively and significantly influenced by sex of household head; while it is negatively and significantly affected by the land holding, total livestock unit, cooperative membership, credit use, participation in rural productive safety net program. Therefore, the study recommends that local government should attempt to promote the above significant determinants of rural households' livelihood diversification strategies choice to build more profitable and sustainable livelihood strategies.

Impact of peri-urban land acquisition for cooperative housing development on smallholders’ livelihoods in Woldia town, Ethiopia

Households are exposed to different natural and man-made risks and vulnerabilities. Choosing effective livelihood strategies is a crucial step in overcoming these obstacles. This review aimed to assess the factors influencing households’ choice of livelihood strategies in Ethiopia, using the preferred reporting items systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. This systematic review was carried out by using various published articles from academic databases. We performed a keyword search, centred around the theory of sustainable livelihood, in several online academic databases. A total of 725 research articles were sourced; 12 of these were duplicates and eliminated. A total of 682 irrelevant papers were removed following the initial screening stage. Of the 31 remaining articles, 24 were eliminated, as they did not address the aim of our study, were not full-text articles, or they had methodological issues. Finally, seven English articles investigating the factors that hinder the choice of livelihood of households in Ethiopia, published during in the last 10 years, were selected for review. Our systematic analysis led to the conclusion that households use various livelihood activities, namely agriculture, non-agriculture, and off-farm livelihoods, to sustain them. In Ethiopia livelihood alternatives were impacted by physical, financial, social, human, and natural capital. The way of living of rural households in Ethiopia is mostly affected by education and access to credit.

The contribution of wild palms to the livelihoods and diversification of rural households in southern Mozambique

Investigating the choice of livelihood strategies has great significance for improving the living standards of peasant households who rent out farmland. This study evaluates the impact of renting-out land on households’ livelihood strategies in China’s western poverty-stricken areas. Data were obtained from cross sectional survey of 585 field survey data from peasant households who rent out land. The K-means clustering method was used to classify the livelihood strategies of the sample households. In view of sustainable livelihood framework, this paper used combination weighting model based on game theory to calculate the quo of households’ livelihood capital. The Multinomial Logistic Regression was used to explore the relationship between livelihood capitals and livelihood strategies. Results show that: livelihood strategy of households who rent out the land can be divided into “agricultural-led” livelihood strategy, “working-oriented” livelihood strategy and “part-time” livelihood strategy. Additionally, the results of Multinomial Logistic Regression show that the households with high human capital and financial capital tend to choose the “working-oriented” livelihood strategy and the households with high natural capital tend to choose the “agricultural-led” livelihood strategy. Therefore, in order to realize the sustainable livelihood of these households, different policy support should be proposed based on the heterogeneity of households in the process of land transfer.

Livelihood diversification strategy has adopted by rural households to diversify their income sources. The livelihood strategies of the rural households have been categorized in to on-farm alone, on-farm plus non-farm, on-farm plus off-farm, and the combination of on-farm plus non-farm plus off-farm strategy. Using a multinomial logistic model, the research examines the effect of socio-economic, institutional, and demographic factors on households' choices of livelihood strategies, categorized as on-farm alone, on-farm plus non-farm, on-farm plus off-farm, and a combination of all three. Key determinants include the age, education level, and gender of household heads, access to credit and training, land size, livestock holding, income, and membership in cooperatives. The on-farm plus non-farm strategy is positively associated with age, education, credit, training, and income, but negatively influenced by land size and livestock holding. The on-farm plus off-farm strategy is negatively affected by secondary education, family size, and land size, while positively influenced by primary education, training, and cooperative membership. The combined strategy (on-farm, non-farm, and off-farm) is negatively associated with age, gender, land size, and income, but positively influenced by education, experience, and training. The study finds that engagement livelihood in livelihood diversification activities has an impact on food security. Therefore, the impact of participation of the households in livelihood diversification activities on their income level has been examined using impact assessment method. The ATT was 1360.51 reinforcing the significant positive impact. The research recommends promoting diversified livelihood strategies, enhancing access to credit, and providing education and training to improve household resilience and food security.

Rural households in many different contexts have been found to diversify their income sources allowing them to spread their risks and to ease consumption. Generating diversified incomes for a majority of the rural poor is an essential component of a successful rural development strategy. This study examined participation in livelihood diversification choice and its effect on household income in Boloso Sore District of Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia. Multistage sampling technique was employed and 270 households were selected for the study. Data analyses were carried out by using descriptive statistics and econometric model. Multinomial logit model was used to identify factors influencing households’ participation in livelihood diversification choices while effects on the household income were analysed by using two-limit Tobit model. The result showed that agricultural activities were the most important source of income for rural households in contributing 72% of total household income with the remaining 28% originating from nonagricultural activities. Multinomial logit model output revealed that age of household head, market distance, members in cooperatives determined participation in livelihood choices significantly and negatively while educational level, economically active members at home, sex, training, owning mobile phone had positively determined participation in livelihood choices. Besides, two-limit Tobit result revealed that age, family size and farm size determined level of income diversification significantly and negatively while educational level, economically active members at home, sex, frequency of extension visit and credit access had positively determined level of income diversification. The findings imply that these factors need to be considered by policy makers in the planning of agricultural and non-agricultural initiatives in the study area.

Impact of a regional payment for ecosystem service program on the livelihoods of different rural households

This study explores the extent to which farmers in the Three Gorges Reservoir area remain highly dependent on agriculture despite rapid urbanization and industrialization. The study focuses on the factors that determine a household’s choice of livelihood strategy, with a particular focus on the production of and dependence on agricultural products. Using a sustainable livelihoods approach and survey data from farmers in the Three Gorges Reservoir area in China, the study provides a descriptive statistical analysis and ordinal logistic regression model that shows that close to 56% of households exhibit a low dependence on agriculture. The following variables had a significant influence on livelihood strategy: the maximum years of education of any household member; the age of the household head; the number of laborers in a household; household location; and formal and informal social networks. Regardless of whether the household had children, house value and fixed assets had no significant influence on livelihood strategy. According to the analysis results, we put forward the suggestions that government departments increase investment in infrastructure and make loan policies more favorable for farmers so as to encourage rural able-person to use their social networks to actively establish businesses at migrant destinations.

Most Nepalese rural households adopt diversified strategies of income generation and use products directly collected from forests. To analyse the influence of livelihood strategy on forest product utilisation, a survey of 336 rural households in lowland Nepal was conducted. Four livelihood strategies were identified by means of a Principal Component Analysis based on income variables, followed by hierarchical cluster analysis. Two livelihood strategies are assigned to on-farm activities and two to off-farm activities. The off-farm based strategies were found to result in higher household incomes. To test for differences across the livelihood strategies, additional socio-demographic variables, physical assets and location information have been analysed using ANOVA. The forest product utilisation behaviour of the households differs significantly between livelihood strategies. The households adopting a subsistence-based strategy collect the most forest products while achieving the lowest total income. However, a general influence of the total household income on the forest utilisation intensity is not confirmed. Households receiving remittances from abroad achieve the highest incomes but still collect forest products. The group of most forest-dependent households is mainly characterised by living near the forest and far from city centres with commodity and labour markets, and by having low education and a young head of household. The households relying mainly on private business income have the lowest forest product utilisation and are characterised by the highest education, proximity to markets and greatest area of agricultural land.

Over the last three decades, Nepal has experienced a rapid transition in rural livelihoods, from largely subsistence farming to more diversified off-farm employment and remittances. Despite this, subsistence farming continues to be a central part of rural production. Why does farming persist in the face of other, more remunerative, off-farm employment options? In this article we argue that subsistence food production continues to be important for rural livelihood security by providing food needs from farming, thus helping households to cope with uncertainties in off-farm employment and international labor migration. Taking the COVID-19 pandemic as an example of a high level of livelihood stress, the paper provides insights and further explanations on the logic of maintaining subsistence food production as part of rural households' livelihood security. Drawing on in-depth qualitative study, complemented with a quantitative survey from eight villages in rural Nepal, we examine the impact of the pandemic on farming and off-farm activities and explore the reasons behind peoples' choice of livelihood strategies and how these vary between different social groups. We show that there was only limited impact of the dramatic disruptions caused by the global pandemic on subsistence farming, however it brought substantial challenges for emerging semi-commercial farming and off-farm incomes, including both local and migratory wage labor. During the pandemic, people increased their reliance on locally produced food, and subsistence farming served as a critical safety net. Our analysis underscores the continued importance of subsistence production amidst contemporary shifts toward off-farm employment among rural households. We also find a growing interest in semi-commercial farming among farmers with better access to land who seek state support to develop such production. This suggests that it is important for agricultural development policy to recognize and support subsistence farming alongside emerging commercial agriculture production as an integral foundation of future farming and rural livelihood security.

Smallholder farmers’ household wealth and livelihood choices in developing countries: A Sri Lankan case study

Despite the continuing economic centrality of agriculture in the district, farm households engage and pursue diverse non-farm livelihood activities to cope with diverse challenges and risks such as drought. This paper aims to assess the relative importance of existing livelihood strategies adopted by the different socio-economic groups; the link between households’ ownership and access to different ‘livelihood assets’; and identify determinant factors for households to adopt and choose certain livelihood strategies in the district. A survey of 130 households in six administrative Kebeles and informal discussion with key informants were used to collect data. Results of the multinomial regression to identify determinants of rural household livelihood options indicated that the role of education and productive family, access to credit and receiving regular remittance, membership to formal cooperatives, access to market and business oriented extension service are of poor farm households to diversify their livelihood income into off-farm and non-farm activities. Even though- variations in livelihood strategies exist, the overall picture is still one of considerable and broad-based poverty in the area. So development of stakeholders should work together and implement target based interventions that help households to improve their livelihood in a sustainable manner by adopting higher return and sustainable livelihood strategies. Key words: Livelihood strategies, rural household, assets, determinants, on-farm, off-farm, non-farm, drought-prone areas, Ethiopia.

Wheat is one of the major cereal crops produced in Ethiopia and used as food and source of cash for farm households. This study aimed identifying factors affecting market outlet choice of wheat farmers in Dembecha district of Ethiopia. A total of 130 farm households were used to collect primary data. About 48.5%, 62.3%, 71.5% and 51.2% of respondents had chosen wholesalers, collectors, cooperatives, and consumers outlets, respectively. The multivariate probit model used revealed the choice of wholesale’s outlet positively affected by educational level and quantity supplied; and negatively by family size and cooperative membership. The choice of collectors’ outlet is negatively affected by educational level and positively by quantity supplied; while choice of cooperative outlet is positively affected by extension contact and membership in cooperatives. Similarly, the choice of consumer outlet is positively affected by educational level, farming experience and extension service. It is, therefore, important to strengthen extension service, efficiently using resources, promoting cooperatives membership and farmers experience to assist farmers producing more and choose a more rewarding market outlet. Keywords: Market outlet choices, Multivariate probit, Smallholder, Wheat DOI : 10.7176/JPID/50-02 Publication date :June 30 th 2019

This paper examines the relationship between rural non-farm employment and household welfare using nationally representative data from Madagascar. It focuses on labor outcomes in the context of household livelihood strategies that include farm and non-farm income earning opportunities. It identifies distinct household livelihood strategies that can be ordered in welfare terms, and estimates multinomial logit models to assess the extent of the barriers to choosing dominant strategies. It finds that high-return non-farm activities provide an important pathway out of poverty, but that barriers such as lack of (a) education, (b) formal credit and (c) access to telecommunications restrict participation in such activities. Individual employment choice models and estimates of earnings functions provide supporting evidence of these barriers. Although the poverty reduction effects may be limited, low-return non-farm activities also play an important role as safety nets by providing opportunities for ex ante risk reduction and ex post coping with shocks.