Household Livelihood Strategies and their Relative Importance in Drought-Prone Areas: The Case of Bati Woreda, in Amhara National Regional State

Molla, Mesfin Ayele (2004) Household Livelihood Strategies and their Relative Importance in Drought-Prone Areas: The Case of Bati Woreda, in Amhara National Regional State. Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.

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Abstract

In the face of recurrent drought and declining land-holding size agriculture on its own rarely provides a sufficient means of survival. Farmers themselves have realized that farming is not enough for meeting their consumption and cash income needs. How do people make up such gaps and sustain their life deserves fine-grain investigation and better understanding. This study was conducted in Bati woreda, a typically drought prone woreda in Amhara Region. It attempts to identify household livelihood strategies and the determinant factors and tries to outline the links between household socio-economic characteristics and the strategies they employ. Questionnaire surveys, key informants’ interviews and focus group discussions were used to collect the data. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and mean are computed. Cross tabulations and Chi-square test were employed for comparison and to establish statistical associations. The qualitative information was analyzed using Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques. Key issues pertaining to household livelihood strategies in the study area include: the existence of remarkable differential among households both in access to livelihood resources and in the pursuit of livelihood strategies; the greater and beneficial inter-dependence among households and communities for exchange and access to livelihood resources; the increasing desire of households to posses camels and possible impacts on the natural resource base; chronic dependence of large number of households on food aid and the challenge in the attempt to break food-aid dependency; a long standing tradition of migration to Djibouti and the impact of the recent decree of the government of Djibouti; and the issue of limited market infrastructure despite an increasing desire of households to engage in various types of non-farm income generation activities. Households engage in a diverse portfolio of livelihood activities both within the agriculture and the nonagricultural sectors. Better off and middle wealth groups have relatively better access to different livelihood resources. Farming is the most important livelihood strategy for better-off households as it covers two-third of their food requirement and close to three-fourth of their cash income. Improving agricultural production through the promotion of agro-ecologically appropriate technological packages is thus vital. Farming for the poor covers only half of their food requirement and cash income. For the poor both agricultural and non-agricultural livelihood strategies are important. The very poor households cover a third of their food need and a quarter of their annual income from farming. For this group nonagricultural livelihood strategies are more important than farming. Revitalizing the path of livelihood improvement through interventions that protect and rebuild assets could be considered for poor and very poor households. Overall reinforcing existing viable non-agricultural livelihood strategies, introduction of alternative income generating activities and recognizing and supporting migratory labour as a livelihood strategy could be important strategic directions for the study area.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Bati, Drought-prone, Household, Livelihood resources, Livelihood strategies, Farm, off farm, Non-farm and Migration
Subjects:	G Geography. Anthropology. Recreation > GB Physical geography H Social Sciences > HM Sociology H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Divisions:	Africana
Depositing User:	Tim Khabala
Date Deposited:	26 Jun 2018 07:51
Last Modified:	26 Jun 2018 07:51
URI:	http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/4583

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