Participants in Non-Farm Activities in Rural Sudan: Patterns and Determinants

Ebaidalla M. Ebaidalla

Working Papers from African Economic Research Consortium

Abstract: Despite the importance of non-farm income in the livelihood of the rural population in Sudan, information available on its size and determinants is scanty. This study examined the patterns and determinants of decisions to participate in non-farm activities in rural Sudan. It also investigates whether the determinants of participation in non-farm activities vary across agriculture sub-sectors and income groups as well as among males and females. The data for this study was sourced from the Sudanese National Baseline Household Survey (NBHS) conducted by Sudan's Central Bureau of Statistics in 2009. The results show that non-farm income is a crucial source of livelihood, contributing about 43% to household income in rural Sudan. The results of multinomial logit and probit estimation methods indicate that educational level, mean of transportation, lack of land and lack of access to formal credit are the most significant factors that push rural farmers to participate in non-farm activities. Surprisingly, the effect of household income was positive and significant, implying that individuals from rich households have higher opportunity to engage in non-farm activities compared to their poor counterparts. Moreover, the analysis revealed some symptoms of gender and location disparities in the effect of factors that influence participation in non-farm activities. The study concluded with some recommendations that aim to enhance the engagement in non-farm activities as an important diversification strategy to complement the role of the agriculture sector in improving rural economy in Sudan

Date: 2020-04-27
Note: African Economic Research Consortium
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://publication.aercafricalibrary.org/handle/123456789/525 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:aer:wpaper:b1fca722-b050-4a23-92e1-21fc8bbd01aa

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in Working Papers from African Economic Research Consortium Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Daniel Njiru ().