Investigating the effect of livelihood assets on diversity of villagers' livelihoods (the case of Bavi County)

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Department of Agricultural Rural Development, Faculty of Agronomy Engineering and Rural Development, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Ahwaz, Iran

2 Department of Agricultural Extension and Education, Faculty of Agronomy Engineering and Rural Development, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Ahwaz, Iran

3 Department of Agricultural Economics, Faculty of Agronomy Engineering and Rural Development, Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, Mollasani, Ahwaz, Iran

Abstract

One of the main challenges of rural development during recent decades is the issue of people's livelihoods instability, which leads to undesirable socioeconomic impacts. Thus, the most crucial and effective means for promoting development goals in rural areas is to identify the households’ livelihoods status, the extent they have access to livelihood assets and the factors affecting that.
 The purpose of this study was to investigate the impacts of rural livelihood assets on their livelihoods diversity. In line with this, a survey method was used to collect data. The statistical population of interest composed of 6670 rural households living in rural areas of Bavi County. A sample of 260 persons as the head of rural households, based on Kerjcie and Morgan table, was selected using cluster random sampling. A questionnaire was designed to collect data. The questionnaire’s validity was confirmed based on the opinion of a panel of faculty members and experts. To ensure its reliability, a pilot study was conducted on a sample outside the scope of the study, and the calculated alpha coefficients showed an acceptable value for the research variables. Data was analyzed using Excel2013 and SPSS20 software.
The results showed that the livelihoods diversity in Bavi’s rural areas was low and not desirable. The rural situations based on their livelihood assets’ prosperities were different; the housholds with a diversified income source had a better situation regarding all livelihood assets than those who had not. Also, the results of regression model estimation represented that livelihood assets variables together with other variables of non-agricultural work experience, agricultural work experience and age accounted for 32.4% of variations in dependent variable of livelihood diversity.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Extended Abstract

Background and Objective

One of the most important platforms to achiev the goals of development in rural areas, especially in developing countries, is to know the livelihood status and households' access to livelihood assets (Eisa Zehi and Sharifzadeh, 2022; Barimani et al., 2016). Despite the dependence of the rural economy on agricultural and non-agricultural products, most of the poor villagers in developing countries are dependent on micro-farming and mainly benefit from agriculture-related livelihood strategies (Shanazi and Aazami, 2016). Since livelihood diversity is considered as a suitable strategy to increase the sustainability of rural areas (Hosseini et al., 2022), in order to improve livelihood strategies of rural households, diversification of agricultural and non-agricultural activities and supplementary income sources have been emphasized (Shanazi and Aazami,2016). Among the factors that change the livelihood of rural households, climate changes (Asravor, 2018; Maru et al., 2021), the limitation of environmental resources such as land and water (Djurfeldt & Djurfeldt, 2013), small land tenure system and low productivity (Kifle et al., 2016) can be considered as great importance. Subsistence or capital assets have a significant role in supporting livelihood and so far five categories of them including human, social, natural, physical and financial capital have been identified (Timalsina, 2007) and displayed in the form of a pentagonal model. In the middle of this pentagon, there is zero access, while the maximum access to funds and assets occurs in its outer space. Considering the important role of these capitals in diversity of rural livelihoods, this research investigated the relationship between thses capitals and livelihood diversity among residents of rural areas of Bavi County in Khuzestan province. For this purpose, first, the level of livelihood assets and the livelihood diversity of the villagers were measured and then the variables affecting livelihood diversity were investigated.

 

Methodology

This research was conducted using the survey method in rural areas of Bavi County, located approximately in 35 km from the city of Ahvaz in Khuzestan province. Existence of fertile lands and locating at the rout of Karun, Dez and Gargar rivers are the main characteristics of this area (Mousavi et al., 2015). The statistical population of the research composed of 6670 rural households that based on Kerjcie and Morgan table, a sample of 260 as the head of households was selected considering random cluster sampling method; Then, the necessary data was collected using a questionnaire. Based on the purpose of the research, livelihood diversity was considered as the dependent variable and individual features along with the five assets were considered as the independent variables. Weighting coefficients were used to convert variables such as the number of livestock or cars into monetary units, and a normalization process was followed for variables did not have the same measurement unit. Also, to calculate the total asset, the weight of each asset was calculated using the principle component analysis. The final value of livelihood asset, then, was made by a weighted average of the five assets. Herfindahl index was calculated to represent the livelihood diversity. To analyze data, an independent t-test was performed to compare the mean of the respondents’ livelihood assets under with and without livelihood diversity, and linear regression was used to investigate variables affecting livelihood diversity.

 

Results

The results showed that about 45% of the respondents had a second job and agriculture was the first job of more than half of them. Also, about 55 percent of the respondents lacked livelihood diversity. In terms of livelihood assets, only in relation to physical assets, the villages have a relatively favorable situation. The weights calculated for financial and social assets were higher than the other ones. The results of measuring Herfindahl index for the rural households showed that livelihood diversity of the studied villages represented a low level. The amount of Pearson's correlation coefficient indicated a positive and significant relationship between all livelihood assets and the livelihood diversity variable. The comparison results of independent t-test showed that the mean of livelihood assets of people showing livelihood diversity are higher than those lacking. The results of linear regression of the factors affecting livelihood diversity showed that livelihood assets along with the variables of age, agricultural and non-agricultural work experience have a significant effect on livelihood diversity at a significant level of less than 5%. Among livelihood assets, natural, financial and social assets have the greatest impact on the livelihood diversity.

 

Conclusion

Diversification of rural livelihoods is a suitable strategy to increase the sustainability of villages and it depends on variables such as human, social, natural, physical and financial assets. The results of the study showed that despite the low level of livelihood diversity among the studied villages, they are different from each other in this respect. It can be said that the distance and proximity to the metropolis of Ahvaz, the existence of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University of Khuzestan, as well as the Ramin power plant are effective in this difference. The positive relationship between livelihood assets and the diversity of livelihoods should be taken into consideration by decision makers in terms of increasing capital assets in the rural areas. Considering that non-agricultural work experience as the most important predictor of livelihood diversity, it is recommended to plan for diversifying the income sources of villagers in rural areas. Of course, the low coefficient of determination in the estimated regression shows that other important variables affect livelihood diversity and should be noticed and explored in the future studies.

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Iranian Journal of Agricultural Economics and Development Research
Volume 54, Issue 2
July 2023
Pages 487-503

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