ISSN 2360-798X
Abstract
This study empirically examines the determinants of rural household livelihood diversification strategy in South Gondar zone, Ethiopia using cross sectional data collected through multistage sampling techniques. Descriptive statistics and multinomial logit regression model were used to analyze the collected data. The descriptive statistics result showed that, agricultural activities account 89.5% of the total annual income of household head. The remaining 10.5% gain from non-farm and off-farm activities. From the total 300 sampled respondents only 39.33% were participated in non-farm and off-farm activities and the majority 60.67% were not participated in livelihood diversification strategies. The empirical result revealed that, the participation and the contribution of livelihood diversification strategies were determined by gender, education, dependency ratio, credit access, having saving account, proximity to town and market, agro-ecological zone, and access to electricity positively and age, cultivated land size, and extension agent training and frequency of contact negatively. On the contrary the irrigation activities, livestock numbers and land ownership certificate were insignificantly determined the rural household livelihood diversification strategy. Thus, this implies that, these positive and negative factors need to be considered and included by policy makers in planning of the rural development strategies’ and policies to overcome the determinants of rural livelihood diversification strategies.
Keywords: livelihood diversification strategy, multinomial logit, non-farm, off-farm and rural household.