Economic dependence of rural households on the riparian zones in Burkina Faso

Abstract

This study aims to quantitatively examine the economic dependence of rural households on riparian zones. Data were collected from 536 households across 8 villages in the Dissin area, Burkina Faso. Descriptive statistics were used to analyse the data collected, while ordinary least squares analytical procedure was used to determine the parameter estimates of riparian income and economic dependence. The economic dependence of both very-low and high-income households is relatively low at 35.53% and 26.39%, respectively. Low-income and middle-income households have higher economic dependencies of 67.21% and 65.73%, respectively. In addition, the factors that contribute to the economic dependence are related to sex, the proximity of the riparian zone, the occurrence of negative idiosyncratic shocks, and the increased importance of other sources of income. In addition, when the riparian income is excluded, the Gini coefficient increases from 0.35 to 0.56, and the incidence of poverty increases from 40.2% to 75.4%.