The Contribution of Livelihood Diversification Activities to Poverty Mitigation in Dodota Woreda, Arsi Zone, Central Ethiopia

Diversifying livelihoods has over the last two decades been identified as an important theme in the development work, particularly for poverty reduction agenda. In the developing world, farm households, urged on by their survival instinct, diversify away from traditional subsistence agriculture to the production of high-value crops and at other times engage in off-farm and non-farm activities. The contribution of non-agricultural activities to household income in the developing world in general and Sub-Saharan Africa in particular is substantial. This study was conducted in Dodota Woreda of East Arsi Zone, Oromiya Region with a general objective of assessing the contribution of livelihood diversification activities to poverty mitigation of rural householders in Dodota Woreda. By using two stage sampling procedure 294 sample respondents were selected from four Kebeles. The result of the logit regression showed that most of the variables tested for the probability of farmer’s participation in livelihood diversification activities had expected sign. Thus; educational status, access to infrastructure, training and participation in safety net had positive sign and significantly affects the probability of farmers’ participation in livelihood diversification activities. Whereas; land size owned, agricultural activity, participation in irrigation, access to credit and perceived level of poverty had negative sign and significantly affect the probability of farmers’ participation in livelihood diversification activities. Thus, improving rural householder knowledge through formal educational and training, expanding availability of accessible infrastructure, and enhancing participation of smallholder farmers in safety net were recommended as possible policy intervention to improve farmers’ participation in livelihood diversification activities so as to mitigate the level of poverty in the study area.