Drivers of diversification and pluriactivity among smallholder farmers—evidence from Nigeria

Diversification and pluriactivity have become a norm among farm business owners (FBOs) due to persistent low farm income. This study applies the resource-based theory to examine drivers of diversification and livelihood income-oriented towards a sustainable livelihood. Our framework develops hypotheses about the impact of internal and external resources on livelihood choices at the household level. We use a survey of 480 rural Nigerian farmers (agripreneurs), applying a Multivariate Tobit to test our framework. We find that education plays the most significant role in all types of employment options. The more FBOs are educated, the more the likelihood that they will choose non-farm or wage employment. This study revealed that while the agriculture sector’s share of rural employment is declining, non-farm is on the increase. More so, there is a decline in farming among the young generation, marital status bias and gender influence in resource allocation. The socioeconomic (income and food security) and socio-cultural (employment and rural-urban migration) implications of rural sustainability linked to UN Development Goals have been highlighted and analysed in this article

Maize Market Participation among Female- and Male-Headed Households in Ethiopia

<p>This paper examines the market participation gaps and their causes between female-headed households (FHHs) and male-headed households (MHHs) in Ethiopia using an Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition approach. The results showed that structural/coefficient effects accounted for 74 per cent (65%) of the differences between FHH and MHH in the net buyer (net seller) maize market positions. The gap between FHH and MHHs regarding quantities of maize sold was largely explained by endowment effects. The results imply that closing the observed market participation gaps will require policy interventions that facilitate equal access for both FHHs and MHHs to resources and other supportive social networks.</p

Considering the links between non-timber forest products and poverty alleviation

The debates around the value and importance of non-timber forest products (NTFPs) are complex and ongoing. The complexity is a result of many factors, including the wide variety of species, products and uses, as well as the variety of constituencies and disciplines each seeing advantage from ‘co-opting’ the importance of the contribution of NTFPs to their own areas of interest and concern. Conservationists are interested in NTFPs because their combined high value in many settings offers a potential alternative to the destruction of forests by either commercial logging or their widespread conversion to other land uses