Mesfin Belew

Livelihoods and Poverty in Rural Ethiopia: the Link Between Livelihoods Diversification Strategies and Poverty in Rural Ethiopia Mesfin Belew

In terms of poverty gap, the highest value (i.e.0.472) was obtained in Subsistence Agriculture (SA) livelihoods strategy followed by Subsistence Agriculture combined with Off-farm (SAO) livelihoods strategy. Contrary to this, Semi-commercial Agriculture strategy and Semi-commercial agriculture combined with Off-farm activity (SCAO) found to have relatively low poverty gap value i.e. 0.206 and 0.198 respectively, the latter being the least of all. From this we can understand that the average consumption short fall needed to bring those households below poverty line in SCA and SCAO is 20.6% and 19.8% respectively. Whereas, the average amount of consumption necessary to fill the shortfall of the poor from the poverty line is 47.2% and 46.8% in Subsistence Agriculture and Subsistence Agriculture combined with Off-farm livelihoods strategy, respectively