Livelihood Diversification of Farm Households under Rainfed Agriculture: A Case of Barak Valley of Assam, India

Smallholder farm households face an increasing need of looking for alternative income sources to supplement their small scale on-farm incomes. However, livelihood diversification is a complex phenomenon and it involves different forms. This study, therefore, delves to realize the patterns of livelihood diversification strategies adopted by the smallholder farmers at Kembata-Tembaro zone, Southern Ethiopia. The study was based on cross-sectional survey data from 384 farm households that were selected through a combination of three-stages: cluster, simple random, and proportional to the size of population sampling techniques. A mix of instruments including interview- schedule, focus group discussions, key informant interviews and field observations were used to acquire primary data. Descriptive statistics in combination with multidimensional approaches involving cluster analysis were used to analyze the quantitative data. The qualitative data were analyzed using word descriptions and verbatim discussions. It was found that the diversification patterns of the smallholder farm households in the study area took different forms involving alteration of land use patterns, intensification of crops and livestock productions, and non/off-farm activities. Superiority order of livelihood strategies in terms of the average annual cash income obtained by the households was set. Accordingly, commercial crop stands first followed by livestock rearing and subsistence crop production as second and third, respectively. It was suggested that livelihood diversification can only be a viable strategy to achieve sustainable rural livelihoods if the farmers are capacitated so that they can choose the right remunerative livelihood strategy among the existing options.

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Determinants of livelihood diversification strategies: The case of smallholder rural farm households in Debre Elias Woreda, East Gojjam Zone, Ethiopia

African Journal of Agricultural Research ◽

10.5897/ajar2014.9192 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 10 (19) ◽

pp. 1998-2013 ◽

Cited By ~ 8

Author(s):

Sewnet Yizengaw Yenesew ◽

Ndemo Okoyo Eric ◽

Beyene Fekadu

Keyword(s):

Farm Households ◽

Livelihood Diversification ◽

Diversification Strategies

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Livelihood Diversification into NFEs and Poverty Alleviation Among Farm Households in Rural India

SEDME (Small Enterprises Development Management & Extension Journal) ◽

10.1177/0970846419871034 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 46 (3) ◽

pp. 171-178

Author(s):

Zeeshan ◽

Geetilaxmi Mohapatra ◽

Arun Kumar Giri

Keyword(s):

Poverty Alleviation ◽

Household Head ◽

Farm Households ◽

Rural India ◽

Livelihood Diversification ◽

Lower Odds ◽

Control Factors ◽

Poor Households ◽

Poverty Status ◽

The Impact

Using the Indian Human Development Surveys of 2004–2005 and 2011–2012, this article examines the impact of livelihood diversification of farm households in non-farm enterprises (NFEs) on their poverty status, escaping from poverty and falling into poverty. The estimates reveal that livelihood diversification into NFEs prevent farm households from falling into poverty and helps them escape it. The result also indicates that NN (who did not diversify in 2004–2005 and 2011–2012), NY (who diversified in 2011–2012 but not in 2004–2005), and YN (who diversified in 2004–2005 but not in 2011–2012) had 4.1 per cent, 16.6 per cent and 24.5 per cent, respectively, lower odds of escaping poverty compared to those farm households that diversified their livelihood into NFEs in 2004–2005 as well as in 2011–2012. However, the results of whether previously non-poor households fell in poverty or not show that livelihood diversification status of NN and YN had 28 per cent and 44.7 per cent higher chances of falling into poverty than those farm households who diversified their livelihood in 2004–2005 as well as in 2011–2012. The results of control factors like religion, caste, education of household head, land holding, livestock ownership, quintiles of income and consumption represent consistent coefficients, which reveals robustness concerning the impact of control factors on outcome variables.

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