The Contribution of Crop Cultivation to the Livelihood Diversification of Agro-pastoralists in Dalifage District of Afar Region, Ethiopia
Keywords:
: Afar, Agro-pastoralists, Crop cultivation, Dalifage district, Livelihood diversification.Abstract
In Ethiopia, rural households engaged in diverse off-farm and non-farm livelihood activities to cope with survival challenges such as drought. Due to unstable climatic conditions and reduced access to grazing land and water, the sustainability of livestock systems in Afar pastoralists is greatly affected. As a result, pastoralists look for alternative means of livelihood to reduce their vulnerability to adverse effects. Hence, this study was designed to investigate the contributions of crop production for the agro-pastoralists in Dalifage district. Multistage sampling techniques were used to draw about 150 sample households from 2 kebeles of the district for survey. Both qualitative and quantitative research approaches were used to collect data of study samples. The data were analyzed using SPSS packages. The survey results revealed that the agro-pastoralists were highly involved in crop cultivation as an alternative means of livelihood, though participants mainly practiced traditional way of production system. About 46.7% of the participants were diversified their livelihood due to crop production. Most of the agropastoral households (68%) claimed that crop cultivation increased the availability of food and feed sources, thereby enhancing their livelihood, minimizing morbidity and mortality loss of herds during the dry season. But some respondents (32%) indicated that crop cultivation was influenced by many internal and external factors, including shortage of water, pests, lack of inputs and market access. In conclusion, a significant number of agro -pastoralists in the Dalifage district were able to diversify their livelihood through crop production. Though, there is still a need for supporting and encouraging them through the provision of integrated extension services to motivate vast number of participants get into the system, there by diversifying their livelihood activities.
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