Livelihood Diversification Determinants in the Teff Growing Area of East Shoa Zone of Oromia Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study was proposed with the aim at identifying factors affecting livelihood diversification strategies in the teff farming system and opportunities to livelihood diversification. . The data were obtained from 148 sample household heads of three kebeles that were selected through multi-stage sampling techniques. The data were collected through both primary and secondary data collection methods. Descriptive statistics was applied to characterize the sample households' socio- economic, demographic, agro-ecological location and institutional factors. The finding of the result indicates that 62.8% of the total sample households depend solely on agriculture for their livelihood strategies, while the remaining 37.2% combine agriculture with other activities like non-farm and off-farm. The study also found that despite the available opportunities to household’s diversification of livelihood strategies.. Multinomial Logit model was employed in identifying the factors affecting rural household’s livelihood diversification strategies. The result indicates that among 16 hypothesized explanatory variables, 9 variables were found to affect household’s diversification of livelihood strategies. Accordingly, total family size, household head education level, dependency ratio, remittance receiving and access to irrigation facility have positive and significant effect on diversification of livelihood activities. However, sex of household head, total land holding, market distance, and agro-ecological location have negative and significant effect on diversification of livelihood activities. Therefore, the results of this study suggest that development interventions, policies and supportive services should be designed and strengthened to promote off-farm and non-farm livelihood activities in addition to agriculture to improve the overall wellbeing of the rural societies.