DETERMINANTS OF RURAL ON-FARM LIVELIHOODS DIVERSIFICATION

The purpose of this paper was to identify the factors influencing households to diversify rural on-farm livelihood activities in Intsika Yethu Local Municipality. This is against a background where literature suggests low livelihoods diversification among rural households despite several claimed benefits of diversification. Cross-sectional survey data was randomly collected for this study in October 2018 from 190 rural households in Intsika Yethu Local Municipality. A structured questionnaire was used for that purpose. Ordered logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the data. The results showed that diversification of on-farm livelihood activities was influenced by the gender of household head, education level of household head, household size, and number of livestock units owned. To promote on-farm livelihoods diversification in rural areas, the paper suggests targeting gender differential, informal education and awareness, labor dynamics associated with on-farm livelihood activities and household livestock units.