Role of Social Capital on Livelihood Strategies, Food Security and Income of Rural Households in Salale, Oromia, Ethiopia

摘要

The purpose of this study was to examine the impact of social capital on rural households' income, food security, and livelihood strategies in Ethiopia's North Shea Zone. Utilizing questionnaires to gather data from 400 sample houses, descriptive statistics and econometric methods were used to analyze the results. The influence of the degree of social capital (trust and social organization) on the decision to choose one or more different livelihood strategies, household’s income, and food security was examined using a multinomial endogenous switching model (MESM). Depending on the answers to various questions posed to gauge the level of trust, and participation on social organizations were determined. The extent of trust is classified as high, medium, and low while extent of participation is classified as very high, high, medium and low levels. On the other hand, the MESM model divided the available livelihood possibilities into four categories: farming only, farming and non-farming, farming and off-farming, and farming, non-farming, and off-farming livelihood strategies. The estimated results show that high and very high levels of engagement in the social organization of the sample households boost farm households' total farm income and food security status in comparison to low level participant households. At a 1 chance level, this difference is statistically significant. High levels of social trust in the community considerably boost total farm income and food security for households at a 1 probability level when compared to farm households with low levels of social trust. The impact analysis of mean comparison reveals that very high level participation in local social organizations increases the farm households' livelihood diversification strategies by 40 over those of low participant households, while medium trust in the community did not demonstrate any significant relationships. A farmer with a high level of social trust in his community diversified his income sources by 59 more than a farmer with a low level of trust, which is statistically significant at his 5 level The results of this study therefore have important implications for both the well-being and living standards of beneficiaries, as well as the policies and measures that policy makers use to design strategies to improve rural livelihoods. It is also expected to have a significant impact on policy inputs.