Determining factors of the strategies for diversifying sources of income for rural households in Burkina Faso

Abstract

This article has used a multinomial logit model to analyze the determinants of diversification strategies of rural households' income sources in Burkina Faso. The main results have enabled the identification of three strategies of the income-source diversification, all carried out around agriculture. They are low, average, high diversification strategies. The outcomes reveal that the age of the household head, household size, dependency ratio, acreage, membership of a producer group, amount of credit, agricultural potential of the area, morbidity, distance to a main road, access to a radio, total income and technical assistance were the key factors in determining the level of income diversification. They indicate that the diversification of income sources is both a strategy for managing risk of fluctuations in agricultural income and a means to take advantage of opportunities in the production environment, given the constraints of rural households.   Key words: Multinomial logit model, diversification strategy, source of income, rural households.