Determinants of livelihood choices among rural farm households, the case of Gida Ayana District of West Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the determinants of income source choices in Gida ayana district of western Oromia. This study assesses the determinants of livelihood choices of rural Farm Households, the case of gida ayana disrtrict of western oromia. Descriptive statistics and econometric models are used to analyze the data. Multinomial logit model was used to analyze determinants of livelihood choices of rural Farm Households. The degree of income diversification of rural farm households was found to be low. This implies that farm households generate their incomes from few livelihood activities. Dependent variable, income source choices/livelihood catagories (dummy) has four categories: only on-farm, on-farm+ off-farm, on farm+ non-farm and mixed of off-farm and non-farm. Descriptive result indicated that on-farm activities share 50.22%, on-farm+ off-farm with share 9.96%, on-farm+ non-farm with share 17.75 % and mixed of off-farm and non-farm with share 9.96%. From multinomial logistic regression Gender, marital status of house hold head, level of education household head, Labor capacity of the household head, access to transportation, land size, access to irrigation, work preference of household head, access to electricity and number of occupation of household head significantly influanced involvement in to off-farm activities. Whereas involvement in income diversification in non-farm activities was significantly influenced by marital status of house hold head, education household head, Labor capacity of the household head, access to market, household land size, employment, access to irrigation, work preference of household head, access to electricity and number. The study result showed that despite the high level of participation in non and off-farm activities, the contribution of non and off-farm income to total household income is small compared to farm income. But there is lack of transportation and well marketing system for diversifying their means of livelihood