Analysis of household choice and determinants of livelihood diversification activities in Chobe district, Botswana

Abstract

In order to spread the proceeds of the mining sector, the government is aiming at diversifying into agriculture, industry, manufacturing, services and tourism. In its rural poverty reduction strategies the government of Botswana (GoB) has identified the off-farm and non-farm as the leading activities in the rural economy. However, even with the policies and strategies the determinants of livelihood diversification activities have not been studied. There is therefore a gap in knowledge of the determinants of household choice of livelihood diversification activities in Chobe District. Thus, analysing the determinants of household choice of livelihood diversification activities in Chobe District was the purpose of this study. Primary data was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire. A sample of 195 households was collected from three villages (Mabele, Kavimba and Kachikau) in Chobe District. The three villages chosen were adjacent to Chobe National park. The data was analysed using multinomial logit model (MNL). The results on marginal effects showed that seven out of eleven variables are significant determinants of diversification activities for households, these are gender, age, asset category, distance to market, land ownership, farm size and extension services. Distance to markets had a positive influence to households diversifying to Tourism-based activities (TBA), crop and livestock. This implied that availability of markets encourages households to diversify to TBA, crop and livestock farming. As for crop farming distance to markets had a negative relation to households diversifying to crop farming. Farm size had positive influence on diversification to crop and livestock farming. Access to extension services influenced household diversification to crop and livestock farming positively at 10 percent level at different marginal effects but negative to TBA, crop and xi livestock farming at 5 percent. The diversity of rural livelihood is important in reducing rural poverty. Based on the findings, emphasis should be made on the determinants of diversification. Interventions aimed at improving the livelihood diversification of rural households must consider improving market availability and supervision of land ownership. Government should intervene and even the rural inhabitants should help educate and train younger members of the communities for profitable diversification to TBA, crop and livestock farming.