ROLE OF PRODUCTIVEE SAFETY NET PROGRAM ON HOUSEHOLDS PARTICIPAION ON OFF-FARM ACTIVITIES IN ETHIOPIA: THE CASE OF MAREKO DISTRICT

Abstract

This research attempted to assess the role of productive safety net program on household participation on off-farm activity in Mareko district of Southern Nation Nationality Region. Purposive, stratified proportionate random sampling and simple random sampling techniques were employed to select sample respondents. A total of 200 households were selected for the study. The instrument developed was survey questionnaire. Both qualitative and quantitative data were gathered for the study. Descriptive statistics like frequency, percentage, and econometrics models were employed to analyze the survey data. The descriptive statistics result revealed that, from the sampled respondents the majority (66.5 %) of households was participated in off-farm activity. From the total sampled respondents almost all were got their livelihoods from agricultural activities, which account on average (50 %) of the total annual income. The remaining 27% of incomes of the rural household head were off-farm activities. The result of probit model regression also indicates that, Gender (sex of household head, farming land size and total household size were found out significantly and positively affect the off-farm activity participation, while, age of household head, farm income and marital status were found out negative and significant factors. Propensity score matching techniques was used to analyzes the effect of PSNP participation on off-farm activity income. Albeit the result from the PSM was not statistically significant, it indicates that participation in PSNP program had negative effect on the off-farm activity income. Finally, it was recommended that Government and NGOs should provide training on more profitable off-farm activities for PSNP beneficiaries to support household’s participation on off-farm income generating activities