Determinants of Rural Households’ Decision to Diversify Livelihood Strategies: The Case of Mesela Woreda, Eastern Ethiopia

Diversification of livelihood strategies pursue by rural household is a common strategy to increase households’ income portfolio and reduces vulnerability. Due to sever land scarcity, high population pressure and recurrent drought, farm households in the study area widely engage in and pursue diverse activities as livelihood strategies. Therefore, in this study determinant of rural households' decision to diversify livelihood strategies in Mesela Woreda, Eastern Ethiopia was identified. A multi-stage sampling technique was employed to select 120 sample households from three agro-ecological zones in the study area. Cross sectional data was collected from sample households by using semi-structural interviews as an instrument. Descriptive statistics as well as logistic regression model were used to analyze the data. The descriptive statistics revealed that 68.3% of the sample households pursued agriculture alone as a means of livelihood whereas 31.7% pursue agriculture and off/non-farm combination to sustain households’ life. For those involved in off/non-farm income contributed on average 23.6% of households earning beside farm income. The logit model result depicted that age of household head, education level of household, migration of household members and saving culture affected positively the decision of rural households to diversify livelihood strategies. Therefore, it would be better if development planners and policy makers strengthen to access households to participate in education in adults’ level and mobilization of saving and appropriate resource management and income generation activity by rural households in the Woreda. The better awareness enhanced education level of households, the higher the tendency for diversification of livelihood strategies and increase income portfolio in the household. Maturity age of household also determine diversification status of households. In the same way, the smaller asset endowed migrated households, the better tendency to diversify income through wage labored in the nearest urban town. Therefore, designing development programs to support rural households to pursue different livelihood strategies to enhance households’ income levels and improve livelihood.