Rural household sources of income, livelihoods strategies and institutional constraints in different commodity contexts - Institutional Constraints to Small Farmer Development in Southern Africa - page 29

Agricultural core
activities

On farm
income

Diversi � ed enterprises

Non-farm enterprises

Non-agricultural
employment

Farm household
income

O farm
income

Non-home farm
agricultural employment

Social transfer, old age,
pensions, disability grants,
cash and in kind
remittances; interest, etc.

Transfers

Figure 2.1. Sources of income (Davis and Pearce, 2001).

2.3 Rural households' choice of activities

Desperate economic realities in many African countries oblige households and individuals
to seek solutions to the circumstances in which they find themselves (Nel and Binns, 2000).
Day-by-day resolution of tensions due to low income among rural households generates
differing degrees of change in a variety of ways. Income portfolio diversification is a typical
practice among rural dwellers and a lot more households are attracted into this livelihood
strategy. According to Davis and Bezemer (2004), 'in studying households' diversification
strategies it is important to account for the fact that the motivations, means and outcomes
of diversifying are heterogeneous'. Households and individuals fall into two distinct groups
on the basis of the motives behind their livelihood diversification viz ; 'demand pull' and
'distress push' diversification (Davis and Bezemer, 2004; Barrett et al., 2001; Davis, 2003).
Demand pull diversification is a response to emerging opportunities in the non-farm sector
such as those brought about by market or technological opportunities. On the other hand,
distress push diversification is driven by little or no opportunities on-farm, e.g. drought
or market constraints (Davis, 2003). The literature has for long emphasized the relative
importance of 'pull' and 'push' factors for households' involvement in non-farm activities
(Barrett et al., 2001; Davis, 2003; Bezemer and Davis, 2004). The key features of distress-
push and demand-pull diversification are outlined in Table 2.1.

The manifestations and modus operandi of the factors listed in the table are elaborated in
the next sections below.