Landlessness is a common reality in rural areas, including the study areas. The objective of this study is to identify landless households’ and examine their resource access and livelihood strategies. The study was conducted in three randomly sampled rural kebeles of Wolmera district of Oromia Region of Ethiopia. The data sources were 174 randomly sampled landless households from the selected rural kebeles. Mixed method research approach was followed in which primary data was collected using household survey, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews, supplemented by secondary data that was collected from different official reports and publications. Descriptive statistics and thematic analysis methods were used for analyzing the quantitative data and the qualitative narratives, respectively. The study showed that landless rural households account for about 18.7 % of the households in the study area. The important assets they utilized to earn a living are human capital and financial capital. Livelihood strategies pursued by landless rural households were farming, and diversification into nonfarm activities. About 10.3% of the landless households pursued only farming while 2.3% of the households pursued only nonfarm strategies, and 87.4% of households pursued both or diversified livelihood strategies. To improve livelihoods of landless rural households of the study area, there is need to train landless groups in different skills-based income-generating strategies, giving emphasis to how to best improve their access to different forms of capital, improving their educational status, as well as improving infrastructure like roads, electricity and water supply is crucial.
Citation: Milkessa Shafe and Matebu Tadesse (2021) Rural Landless Households, Their Access to Assets and Livelihood Strategies:The Case of Wolmera District of Oromia Region, Ethiopia, International Journal of Agricultural Extension and Rural Development Studies, Vol.8, No.5, pp.29-43
Keywords: Ethiopia, Wolmera district, access to assets, livelihood strategies, rural landless households
