Consumption Poverty And Livelihood Diversification Among Rural House Holds Of Debatie Wereda, Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, Ethiopia.

Abstract

This research is conducted in order to fill in the gap observed in consumption poverty and livelihood diversification research in Ethiopia and particularly in Benishangul Gumuze Regional State. The study was conducted in Debatie Woreda of Metekel zone in Benishangul Gumuze Region, with specific objectives of analyzing the determinants of consumption poverty and assessing the impact of livelihood diversification strategies on the rural household’s poverty level. The data for the study was obtained from 346 HHs in 5 rural Kebeles selected using multi stage random sampling techniques. The primary and secondary data collected were analyzed and discussed applying descriptive statistics, binary and multinomial logit (MNL) models. The binary logit model was applied for the analysis of determinants of consumption poverty; whereas, Multinomial Logit (MNL) model was used for the analysis of livelihood diversification strategies among rural households in the area. The result indicated that out of 18 explanatory variables included in the binary logit model, 8 variables were found to be significant 1 up to 10 percent significant level. These variables included household head sex, family size, dependency ratio, age of the household head, marital status of the household head, education level of household head, distance from road, and distance from market center. On the other hand, the result revealed that out of again 18 explanatory variables included in the Multinomial Logit (MNL) model, 7 variables were found to be significant 1 up to 10 percent significant level. These variables included household head sex, age of the household head, land holding size of the household, incidence of animal disease, livestock ownership in TLU, distance from market center, and distance from road. Policies that aim at reducing household-size, dependency-ratio, investing in education to enhance access to education, that will exert positive effect on household’s consumption-expenditure and also investigating the mechanisms through which livelihood diversification strategies would be sustainable and which could in the long run be combined with appropriate households income diversification mechanisms (increase in the HHs income through participation in different livelihood strategies) which further helps in order to reduce the impact of poverty on the rural HHs of the study area, are recommendations drawn from the study.