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/off-farm diversification should be strengthened to attain smallholder households’ livelihood security. Key words: Livelihood, off-farm, non-farm, diversification and smallholder.
Highlights
Agriculture is an important sector for majority of the rural populations’ livelihood in developing countries
The results of this study suggest that both agricultural intensification and non/offfarm diversification should be strengthened to attain smallholder households’ livelihood security
The findings of this research are organized based on the three major emergent themes, namely: types of livelihood strategies, livelihood assets, and the determinants of the choices of livelihood diversification strategies
Summary
Agriculture is an important sector for majority of the rural populations’ livelihood in developing countries. Farming as a primary source of income has become failed to guarantee sufficient livelihood for most farming households in sub-Sahara African countries (Babatunde, 2013) This is because the agricultural sector in the sub-Saharan African countries is highly characterized by decreasing farm sizes, low levels of output per farm, and a high degree of subsistence farming (Jirstrom et al, 2011). The agricultural activities in rural Ethiopia is dominated by smallholders, the majority cultivating less than 0.5 ha and producing mostly basic staples for the subsistence of their households. Their agricultural activities are characterized by backward production technologies, small fragmented land size, irregular rainfalls, increasing soil erosion, land degradation, aridity in some regions and pervasive tropical diseases in the others (Arega et al, 2013)
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
