Full Length Research Paper

Livelihoods diversification and gender in Malawi

Franklin Peter Simtowe

University of Malawi, Center for Agricultural Research and Development. P. O. Box 219, Lilongwe, Malawi. E-mail: fsimtowe@yahoo.com.

Accepted 7 December, 2009

   Abstract

Scholarly literature portrays rural livelihoods diversification as a continuously occurring phenomenon that results from the increased importance of off-farm wage labor in the household livelihood portfolio or through the development of new forms of on-farm commodities. The fact that women and men particularly in Africa have significantly different roles in the making of livelihoods decisions suggests the need to further understand the differential determinants of livelihoods diversification for the two groups. This study analyses determinants of livelihoods diversification using data from a cross-sectional survey of about 400 households from Malawi. We find that more than 60% of the households combine a number livelihood strategies including agriculture while only 37% of them rely purely on agriculture. Multinomial logit regression results indicate that female-headed households are more like to combine agriculture and ganyu than relying purely on agriculture. Moreover households with access to credit are more likely to rely purely on agriculture than to diversify away from agriculture.  The low agricultural income realized by female-headed households appears to be a push factor for women diversification into ganyu.

Key words: Gender, livelihoods diversification, agricultural productivity, Malawi.