Household Livelihood Strategies In Southern Wollo The Case Of Denka Ka Ambassel Woreda

This study is a result of three months of field work in the Denka Kebele Association (KA) in Amhara Regionalrnstate in Northern Ethiopia. Research was conducted among households who cultivate plots of land and keeprnlivestock in a rugged ecosystem.rnAn analysis of data from households interviewed indicated that the traditional agriculture has remained the mainrneconomic activity and the majority of farmer-producers practices it. The traditional farming system is based onrnsmall plots of land, family labor, small-scale production and limited capital input. The livelihood and food securityrnof households is influenced primarily by farm and grazing land availability. Land has the most important influencernon the livelihood strategies employed by households, type of crop harvested, and the type and number of livestockrnpossessed or kept by households. The size of household land holding in the research area has been decreasedrnconsiderably over the past decades. This process has been accompanied by population increase. Populationrnincrease coupled with land redistributions contributed to the land diminution at the household level. The recentrnland redistribution, which was carried out in 1991 particularly, had a serious impact on the diminution of land sizernas it included town dwellers that were not previously farmers. The diminution of land size in turn has an impact onrnshare cropping arrangements and inter-community relationships. Sharecropping arrangements are shifting in favorrnof landowning households because newly established households, returnees from resettlement and land shortrnhouseholds need land though the carrying capacity of the land is limited. Furthermore, a patron-client relationshiprnis developing between landowning and landless households. On the other hand, newly established households arernbecoming dependent on their parents (often fathers) in order to have land to construct their houses. Thesernhouseholds do not have direct access to services provided by the local government such as credit. They depend onrntheir fathers to access such services. Consequently, a “new domain” that stands between the already contrastingrn“domestic” and “public domains” is in the formation. Furthermore, fathers become the most influentialrncounterparts in bargaining and decision making in the household.rnScarcity of land has an impact on livestock ownership. The decrease in the size of grazing land has an impact onrnthe number and type of livestock households own. As land becomes scarce, the number of livestock householdsrnhas decreased and the kind of animals shifted to animals that need less grazing area while they can bring aboutrnmore income. Analysis of data further shows that shortage of grazing land and the subsequent limit in the numberrnand type of livestock make ownership of livestock less important in differentiating households.rnLabor cannot be identified in isolation from other household resources. The mere availability of family labor in thernrural parts of the country can hardly make a household viable given the lack of employment and/or low wagernwhich often hardly enable to sustain the household for a larger period of time in the year.rnLooking into coping strategies of households, those households that shifted from crop production to marketablerncash crops and products such as chat, coffee, eucalyptus trees, sesame, fruit trees, etc.; those households thatrndiversify to raising animals which need less grazing area and that can bring in more money and those householdsrnthat involve in the market can cope with crises more successfully. Such households are engaged in riskrnminimization prior to the crises period. Whenever there is crisis, households can modulate to risk absorption,rnwhich includes dependence on cash credit or food aid in the food-for-work program. The last way out tornhouseholds that do not have assets at their disposal is reliance on sale of animals, famine foods and reduction ofrnconsumption, which are referred as risk taking to survive

Get Full Work

Report copyright infringement or plagiarism