Income diversification, wealth, education and well-being in rural south-western Madagascar: Results from the Mahafaly region

Abstract

Rural households in the Mahafaly region of south-western Madagascar have to contend with low economic development and a risky natural environment. A survey of 665 households in the region was designed to address three research questions: what is the relationship between diversification of income sources and household wealth; how does education influence access to non-farm income sources and diversification; and how does household wealth and diversification affect well-being?The results show that the overwhelming majority of households follow a diversification strategy. Household wealth is associated with larger fields, greater crop diversity and higher diversification of income source categories. Education enhances access to high-return, non-farm income sources. Self-reported well-being is positively affected by both wealth and diversification. Better education and measures to improve inhabitants' existing strategies for compensation of yield losses in farming are crucial for securing local livelihoods in the face of decreasing precipitation due to climate change.

Smallholder Livelihood Diversification and Income Inequality in Rural Malawi

“…The entry barrier of the required education level was relatively high for this job, as the average education years of teachers (12.0 years) was much higher than that of other household heads (2.7 years). Thus, the case of Belo accords with the tendency noted in the literature that only those with a capital endowment (in this case, human capital) can engage in highly remunerated off-farm employment (Neudert at al., 2015).…”

The cattle raiders leave us no choice: New transhumance in the Mahafaly Plateau region in Madagascar

“…The literature about the study area mentions frequent migration patterns not addressed in the interviews: Many women marry into another village, men temporarily move inside or outside regions to carry out slash-and-burn agriculture (SULAMA 2011) or to take up temporary employment (Neudert et al 2015). Regional droughts and famines trigger the final out-migration of whole families (Kaufmann and Tsirahamba 2006).…”

“…In 2012, approximately 60% of the region's households owned livestock, but only 40% of the households were able to raise cattle. Depending on the family's economic situation, the number of cattle per household varies between 1 and more than 200 animals, with an average of 17 heads (Neudert et al 2015). Raising cattle is a family affair, where the animals are generally herded by the sons while ownership and decision rights are mainly in hands of the father.…”

“…An inductive content analysis (Patton 2002) was done using the QDA software Atlas.ti to code and theme the transcribed data. The analysis is underpinned with some data from a region-wide household survey undertaken in 2012 (Neudert et al 2015).…”

Analysis of GPS trajectories to assess spatio-temporal differences in grazing patterns and land use preferences of domestic livestock in southwestern Madagascar

“…The two sites 1 and four villages 1 , respectively, were selected based on the results of a foregoing baseline survey (Projet SuLaMa 2011), the willingness of livestock keepers to participate in the study, and the feasibility of access. According to Neudert et al (2015), all villages show a community structure typical for this region with Ankilibory, Efoetse, and Miarintsoa being exclusively inhabited by Tanalana people, while the population of Andremba consists of Tanalana and Mahafaly in equal shares (Table 1).…”