Abstract

Smallholder rural farm households face increasing pressure to diversify their livelihood strategies to supplement their meager and unstable agricultural productivity. The objective of the study was to assess the determinants of smallholder rural farm households’ choice of livelihood diversification strategies in sub-Zoba Debarwa, Zoba Debub, and Eritrea. Data were collected from 201 randomly selected rural households from six villages. The results of the study revealed that the majority (80.5%) of the farmers were able to diversify their livelihoods into either off-farm or non-farm or combined income activities, whereas the remaining 19.4% of the households were unable to diversify and rely only on farming for their livelihood. The multinomial logit model of the household demonstrated that the sex of the household head, level of education of the household head, age of the household head, average education of members, invalidism, family size, remittance, farm experience of the household head, livestock holding, farm size, irrigation size, and access to credit services have a significant effect on livelihood diversification strategies. Thus, these results have implications for the design of rural development policies that stimulate rural farm households to participate in non/off-farm activities and strengthen their livelihood security.

Key words: Livelihood diversification strategies, multinomial logit, non farm, on farm, off farm, rural households.