Livelihood strategies and diversification in western tip pastoral areas of Ethiopia

The purpose of this study was to identify the livelihood strategies and diversification status in the western tip of Ethiopia, Lare woreda. A mixed research method of sequential transformative strategy was used. Surveys and key informant interviews (KII) were sources of data. A survey of 133 sample households, and four KIIs were employed. Diversification status was measured by Simpson diversity index (SDI) using SPSS 20. The result showed that 33.8, 40.6 and 25.6% of the households were poor, less poor and better-off, respectively. More than half of the households (53.4%) pursued three activities as a means of income and food. Crop and animal production were practised by almost all of the sample households. The distribution of households with livelihood categories showed on-farm (10.5%), on-farm and non-farm (15.8%), on-farm and off-farm (12%) and on-farm, non-farm and off-farm (61.7%). The Simpson diversity index revealed that 15.04, 30.07 and 54.89% of the households were less, medium and high diversifiers, respectively. The mean diversification score of the households was 0.5775, and the diversification status was a lot better as compared to other study results within and outside Ethiopia.