Smallholder Farmers' Participation In Off-Farm Activities. The Case Of Bambasi Wereda, Benishangul Gumuz Regional State, Ethiopia

Master's Thesis from the year 2020 in the subject Economics - Macro-economics, general, grade: 4.00, , course: Developmental Economics, language: English, abstract: This study focuses on the analysis of off-farm participation of smallholder farmer’s of the study area. A cross-sectional sampling procedure was employed to draw data from a random sample of 248 respondents. A two-stage Heckman model was used to investigate determinants of off-farm participation decision and intensity of off-farm participation. The assessment of impact of participation of off-farm activities on income of smallholder farmers have been addressed through estimating the average treatment effect by using the estimated propensity score matching. The Majority of the world’s poor live in rural areas of developing countries are depending on agriculture and its related activities as a source of livelihood. But agriculture alone cannot provide sufficient livelihood opportunities to sustain life. There are other methods to supplement agriculture like, rural off-farm activities. The result of the two-stage Heckman model and estimate of average treatment effect (ATE) revealed variables that affect off-farm participation and intensity of off-farm participation. Also, the estimate of average treatment effect indicated that off-farm participation have a significant and positive impact on income of smallholder farmers of the study area. In the policy implications, it was recommended that implementation of Strategies that direct on the improvement of educational status of rural farmers, Policies that focus on increasing the farm incomes of the smallholders through intensive farming systems and raising their market bargaining power, the creation of conductive environment for the development of off-farm activities and implementation of Policies that encourage more participation of youth age than the old ages on off-farm activities.