Rural household livelihood strategies in drought-prone areas: A case of Gulomekeda District, eastern zone of Tigray National Regional State, Ethiopia

Despite the continuing economic centrality of agriculture in the district, farm households engage and pursue diverse non-farm livelihood activities to cope with diverse challenges and risks such as drought. This paper aims to assess the relative importance of existing livelihood strategies adopted by the different socio-economic groups; the link between households’ ownership and access to different ‘livelihood assets’; and identify determinant factors for households to adopt and choose certain livelihood strategies in the district. A survey of 130 households in six administrative Kebeles and informal discussion with key informants were used to collect data. Results of the multinomial regression to identify determinants of rural household livelihood options indicated that the role of education and productive family, access to credit and receiving regular remittance, membership to formal cooperatives, access to market and business oriented extension service are of poor farm households to diversify their livelihood income into off-farm and non-farm activities. Even though- variations in livelihood strategies exist, the overall picture is still one of considerable and broad-based poverty in the area. So development stakeholders should work together and implement target based interventions that help households to improve their livelihood in a sustainable manner by adopting higher return and sustainable livelihood strategies. Key words: Ethiopia, livelihood strategies, rural household, assets, determinants, on-farm, off-farm, non-farm, drought-prone areas.