Livelihood diversification strategies among men and women rural households: Evidence from two watersheds of Northern Ethiopia

Full Length Research Paper

Livelihood diversification strategies among men and women rural households: Evidence from two watersheds of Northern Ethiopia

Kebede Manjur¹*, Haileselassie Amare², Gebrehiwot HaileMariam³ and Luchia Tekle²

¹Department of Resources Economics, Agricultural Extension and Development (READ), College of Dryland Agriculture and Natural Resources, Mekelle University, Ethiopia.

²Mekelle Agricultural Research Centre, P O Box 258, Ethiopia.

³International Potato Center, C/O International Livestock Research Institute, Ethiopia.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: solomonmanjur@gmail.com. Tel: +251914731423.

Accepted 26 March, 2014

Abstract

This study was conducted to examine livelihood diversification strategies among men and women farm households in Begasheka and Debrekidan watersheds of Northern Ethiopia. The essential data were collected from 182 farm households. Descriptive statistics and Binary Logistic Regression Model (BLGM) were deployed to analyse the data. Three groups of livelihood strategies with eight sub-livelihood strategies were identified in the study areas including farming, off-farm and non-farm. The result of the study revealed that gender affects diversification options, the choice of income-generating activities due to culturally defined roles, social mobility limitations and differential ownership of working capital and access to assets. Based on the present study, it was possible to infer that the constraints of the rural households in choosing livelihood strategies that will lead them to achieve food security goal should not be put aside since food security problem cannot be overcome by simply concentrating on the farm sector alone; inter-sectorial issues, farm and non-farm linkages need to be addressed as well. Moreover, the contribution made by off-farm and non-agricultural sector to rural households is significant; obviously these activities are targeted for survival. In addition, the significance of gender issue indicates the decision to livelihood choices and as such public policy should be informed by analyses of how different livelihood choices are conditioned by gender issue. Thus the next interesting research question would be to analyze how gender issues affect the amount of income generation implications of different livelihood choices’ practices.

Key words: Gender, farm, off-farm, non-farm, male households, female headed households.