Senegalese rural households multiple livelihoods strategy: a potential solution for rural employment issues

Ya Cor Ndione, IPAR - Initiative Prospective Agricole et Rurale

At a time when diversifying income sources is increasingly recommended to overcome rural underemployment and poverty, little is known about pluriactivity of rural households in Africa, particularly in Senegal. Because rainfed agriculture predominates and involves underemployment of rural labor, pluriactivity remains important in Senegalese rural areas. Determinants of such a strategy and correlatively its effects on income generation are poorly known. Thus, this paper contributes to analyze its determinants and investigate implications of this strategy on the income distribution model of rural households .This study uses primary quantitative data on 1500 rural households and qualitative data collected in 2013 in three agro-ecological zones. Our results show that household characteristics, land status, produced crops and the level of farm income highly influence pluriactivity choice. Pluriactivity plays a major role in household survival in rural Senegal, reinforces stability in their farm activities but does not constitute a viable farm exit strategy.