Determinants Of Rural Households’ Livelihood Strategy Choices In Boneya Boshe District, East Wollega Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia

Abstract

Rural households face an increasing need of looking for alternative income sources to supplement their livelihood activities. However, their livelihood strategy choices were determined by complex and yet empirically untested determinants in Boneya Boshe District. Therefore, the objective of this study was to assess the determinants of rural households’ livelihood strategy choices in the study area. The study is based on primary data collected from 147 sample selected at random using questionnaire. Additional information was also obtained from focus group discussion, key informant interview and personal observation. The data has been analyzed by descriptive statistics, inferential statistics (x2 and t-test) and economic model (multinomial model) using SPSS software. Qualitative data were used to substantiate the responses of questionnaire. The finding of the survey result indicates that much of the rural households (39%) in the study area practice on farm livelihood strategy followed by 24.48 percent was from nonfarm activities that combined on-farm activities with nonfarm activities. Multinomial logit model applied to investigate the determinant influencing the households’ choice of livelihood strategies. The econometric analysis demonstrated that out of the total sixteen variables included in the model five variables in on farming plus off-farm activities, seven variables in on farming plus non-farm and seven variables in combination of on farm plus off-farm plus non-farm activities were solely or simultaneously were influenced rural household choice of livelihood strategies at different significant level. The results of this study recommend that, livelihood strategy choices should focused on sustainable livelihood development and to withstand shocking. To do so, higher concern would be given to the agricultural diversification, intensification and non/off farm strategies could be strengthened to raise positively farmers’ participation in various livelihood strategy choices rather than depend solely on one livelihood strategy choice.