Abstract
Farmers’ life without livelihood diversification into off-farm and non-farm income activities becomes difficult due to unstable and meagre agricultural context of the study area. Farm income alone cannot feed the ever increasing population. Hence, livelihood diversification is a matter of life or death for majority of the households in the study district. The objectives of the study were to identify household livelihood diversification options; to identify reasons why smallholder farmers need to diversify; and to analyze the implication of livelihood diversification strategies on smallholder farmers’ income. A multistage sampling technique was used to select the study area and 485 sample respondents. Data was collected using structured interview and key informants interview. The poor and less poor households’ livelihood diversification was primarily for survival whereas the objective of the better-off households was for better wealth accumulation. It was found that 43% of the overall annual income of the farmers comes from off-farm and non-farm activities. This implies that non-farm and off-farm activities have significant implication on improving farmers’ livelihood. Therefore, more efforts are required from the regional government on supporting livelihood diversification into off-farm and non-farm activities than sticking on the drought vulnerable, limited farm-land and rain dependent farm income. Key words: Livelihoods, diversification strategies, income, Saesietsaeda Emba, Ethiopia.
Highlights
Africa as a continent is identified by subsistence farm households involved in livestock, crop or fish production as their main source of livelihood and in other non-farm income generating activities to augment their main source of income
Because understanding wealth status of the household plays a vital role to clearly indentifying the reasons for why farm households need to diversify, who are diversifying their livelihood activities and why the others, and to know the crucial role of wealth played for smallholder farmers to choose and adopt certain livelihood diversification strategies and assess its implication on improving households income
Whereas 16.9% of the sample households were unable to diversify their livelihoods, often lacking the means to engage in any form of income generating activity aside agriculture
Summary
Africa as a continent is identified by subsistence farm households involved in livestock, crop or fish production as their main source of livelihood and in other non-farm income generating activities to augment their main source of income. Previous empirical studies found that rural residents across the developing world earn about 35 to 50% of income from non-farm activities and confirmed that more than 50% of income in rural farming. In Ethiopia, empirical studies indicate that non-farm income accounts for as much as 40 to 45% of average household income (Bezabih et al, 2010; Kassie, 2017). Any impacts of climate change may potentially affect all aspects of food security, including food availability, access, utilization, and stability (Challinor et al, 2010; IPCC, 2012; 2014)
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
