Livelihood Diversification among the Agricultural Land Scarce Peasants in the Central Highlands of Ethiopia

This article examines the livelihood strategies of land scarce peasants in ethiopian. land scarcepeasants have a limited livelihood security on a sustainable manner and bypassed by majordevelopment programmes. the study was centred on two sets of rationales. first, for those peasantswho do not have sufficient farmland, agriculture provides only a limited portion of households’livelihood security sustainably. second, although there are ample studies on rural livelihoods andagricultural land scarcity, little is known, for instance, about the dynamics of agricultural land scarcefarmers’ livelihood strategies in the central highlands of ethiopia. the field study surveyed 75 landscarce households and conducted a number of key informant interviews, focus group discussions, directobservations and transect walks to get first hand information and consulted several secondary sources.the result showed that the respondents are still predominantly pursuing agricultural based livelihoodstrategies through agricultural intensification, extensification, and diversifications. it depicted that29.3%, 42.7 %, and 98.7 % of the respondents derive income from off-farm, non-farm, and agriculturalactivities, respectively. they also seasonally migrate outside their village for additional sources ofincome. thus, interventions and policies need to promote sustainable livelihood must consider themthrough enhancing non-agricultural livelihood diversification activities away from agriculture andreduce the heavy dependence on limited land.