Determinants of smallholder farmers’ engagement in non-farm activities in Damot Woyde Woreda of Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

Ethiopian Poverty has been deep rooted in the community that leads to
unemployment, lack of income and lack of resource mobilization etc. All these challenges posed
farmers to enter into the labor market. Therefore, non-farm activities provide different types of
employment opportunities to the farmers to divert their minds to involve many sources of income.
The main objectives of the study are to analyze the existing situation of the farmers on non-farm
activities and to identify the determinants of non-farm activity participation in the Damot Woyde
Woreda in Wolaita Zone, Southern Ethiopia. The primary data were collected from 140 farmers’
households, out of which 80 farmers were involved in both farm and non-farm activities but the
rest 60 respondents were involved in farm activities only. There were eight Independent
variables included in the model of which five variables were found to be significant at less in a
10 percent probability level. The significant variables are age, education, credit use, distance
from the road and distance from the market were found to be highly influencing the farmers’
involvement in non-farm activities. Therefore, these factors have to be considered while planning
of rural farm and non-farm activities by the policy makers to come up with project to implement
for the farming community.