Livelihood of Rural Households in Resettlement Areas: The Case Study from Quara Woreda of North Gondar Zone, Amhara Region

Agitew, Genanew (2011) Livelihood of Rural Households in Resettlement Areas: The Case Study from Quara Woreda of North Gondar Zone, Amhara Region. Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.

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Abstract

Resettlement is an increasingly becoming attractive as a way of out of pressing problems caused by food shortage, land fragmentation, population pressure, rampant unemployment, marginality of land and decline in land productivity. With the aim to investigate the livelihoods of rural household and their strategies in resettlement area, the study was conducted using both quantitative and qualitative approaches. Based on data generated from household survey, focus group discussion, key informant interview and observations, the study revealed that the area studied have experienced higher population trends due to continuous and ongoing resettlement program. The program has two edges, one with positive and enabling for better livelihood options and the other with negative and destructive side. As a result, the livelihood assets are gained, lost and shaped. From critical livelihood assets, social asset, which is the most important livelihood asset of households is found to be the source of other livelihood assets and strengthened more by different social bonding mechanisms within and between host and settler community members. The physical asset of households in the area is very limited, while the natural assets are getting less and less and exacerbated due the resettlement program. The dominant on-farm livelihood activities of households in the study area are crop cultivation and animal production being major and minor, respectively. Households have experienced the change in the livelihood activities to use better opportunities for better livelihood options and to minimize the risks involved from constraining factors of resettlement program. The change in the livelihood activities of households is manifested in three ways: the change within the same livelihood activities, from subsistence to commercial; seasonal shift between different activities, on-farm during rainy season and off-farm during dry season; and the complete shift from one type of activity to the other, which is from on-farm to off-farm income generating. The result of assessment of food security situation indicated that settlers have shifted from aid seeking to household food self-sufficiency. In general, majority of households in the area have ensured household food sufficiency throughout the year. However, considerable numbers of households are still not attained household food sufficiency. Even though, most of households have ensured sufficiency of household food throughout the year, transitory food insecurity, particularly during the leafy stage of the crops is reported to occur in few households and it extends to better-off households during natural hazards. Finally, this study recommended that resettlement programs should not be seen as panacea for all socio-economic problems of households other than solving short-term problems at the expense of natural resources and if it is to be durable and long-lasting development intervention, it has to ensure sustainability of livelihood of households.

Item Type:	Thesis (Masters)
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Resettlement, households, livelihood, assets, and food security
Subjects:	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 Sep 2018 07:32
Last Modified:	26 Sep 2018 07:32
URI:	http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/5619

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