Abstract
The purpose of this study is to evaluate rural household’s food and income diversification decisions in face of climate change adaptation strategies using advances in choice-based experiment. Several studies have focused on general and specific food values using the balanced incomplete block design; but fewer studies have been devoted to study rural household food and income diversification decisions via the lens of balanced incomplete Latin square design (BILSD). The BILSD was used to design questionnaire served in data collection. For each question, respondents were asked to choose his best and worst coping strategies. Mixed logit model was used to data. Results reveal that agricultural production, livestock products and remaining stock from previous harvest were the most important sources of food; while the sale of agricultural product followed by the sale of garden product, picking and the sale wild fruits and leafy vegetables, small business, crafting, project transfer, the sale of firewood and straw and the sale of livestock product were the most important sources of income. Results suggest that agricultural production, livestock production and stock from previous harvest and as well as the sale of agricultural product, the sale of garden product, picking and the sale wild fruits and leafy vegetables, small business, crafting, project transfer, the sale of firewood and straw and the sale livestock product are the optimal combination food and income diversification decisions to enhance rural household resilience building capacity. Results finally suggest that collective decision made about food and income diversification decisions is more welfare enhancing that individual decision. Key words: Food and income diversification decisions, rural household, choice experiment, climate change adaptation strategies.  
Highlights
Rural households have developed and continue to develop various food security and income diversification strategies to cope with the negative externalities of climate change
Results from Likelihood ratio tests (LRT) revealed that individual decision and collective decision in a given household could not be pooled across multinomial logit (MNL) and random parameters logit (RPL) models
Results generally showed that the combination of agricultural product and livestock products and remaining stock from previous harvest captured 87.70 and 93.73% for individual decision and collective decision respectively; indicating that collective decision about food diversification strategies is more welfare enhancing that individual decision
Summary
Rural households have developed and continue to develop various food security and income diversification strategies to cope with the negative externalities of climate change. Scientific data are needed to determine the most important food and income combinations capable of guiding policy-makers on how to efficiently assist rural household to maintain their livelihoods when climate change hit. The economic value of these choices is determined by the rate a person is willing to exchange one good for another This rate is captured in a person’s maximum willingness-to-pay to purchase a good or their minimum willingness to accept to sell a good (Lusk and Shogren, 2007). Understanding rural household food and income diversification strategies are keys to evaluate the degree of vulnerability, and to determine which types of assistance rural households generally need to maintain its livelihoods when crises such flood, food shortage, drought and climate change hit
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
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 callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
