Browsing by Author "Belete, A."
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Item Analyzing the agricultural livelihood strategic components in the Zambezi region, Namibia(2018) Nyambe, Jacob M.; Belete, A.While urban dwelling is increasingly becoming common across the world, in Namibia, the population settlement pattern is skewed towards rural areas and so is the case for the Zambezi region. The main livelihood strategy is agriculture, which is subsistence in nature and practiced on communal land. This paper investigates changes in the agricultural livelihood strategy in the rural Zambezi. The work is premised around the hypothesis that the agricultural livelihood strategy has improved since 2002 to 2008. Parametric sampling approach in the form of stratified sampling technique based on environmental systems of being flood prone was used to yield a sample size of 253 respondents. SPSS was used in analyzing the data and in the process conventional descriptive statistics and a Chi-Square method were applied. The results show that households with members who were between 5 to 6 in number owned more land than households with more or few members. The majority of respondents are between the ages 36 to 60 years of age. Of the total respondents, 61% were married. The majority of respondents in the category of those with no education at all making up 35% are women. At Junior and Secondary education levels, women dominate men. Male respondents (at 5%) slightly outclass women respondents in terms of having attended tertiary education. Furthermore, the findings proved otherwise in favour of the alternative hypothesis that changes to the livelihoods have occurred but in an adverse manner. The declining livestock numbers from 53% to 47% of the total cattle numbers and crop harvests among the marginalized households require some long-term policy interventions. Introducing small irrigation projects for rural farming households holds potential for increased crop outputs when there is inadequate rainfall. Other than opting for sustainable livelihoods, anything less is unlikely to be inappropriate for a rural farming household in the Zambezi region.Item Assessing climate risk to improve incomes of rural farming households in the Caprivi region, Namibia(2013) Nyambe, Jacob M.; Belete, A.While the scientific world blames the severity of climate risk factors on climate change, the assessment of its effects on a rural household remains understudied. The objective of this study is to assess climate risk factors on rural households that practices small-scale agriculture with the aim of improving the incomes of farming households. The paper used cross-sectional data from a sample of 253 respondents who represented households that were based in the flood prone areas of the Caprivi region. Invoking a multivariate regression model revealed that climate risk factors especially flood exacerbates the opportunity cost for obtaining a good harvest and thus exposed farming households to income risk and food insecurity. In view of these findings, old age pension and retirement annuities, the value of livestock and that of food aid proved vital to the income and food security needs of rural households in the study area. Investing in early warning systems and publicizing likely climate risk scenarios may be helpful to rural households in preparing to secure their income sources and thus reducing chances of hunger.Item Assessment of factors to receiving food aid in the Caprivi region of Namibia: A factor analysis approach(Academic Journals, 2012) Nyambe, Jacob M.; Belete, A.Now than ever before, rural communities in the Caprivi region of Namibia are relying more on food aid. This shows that something has gone wrong with their sources of livelihood. This paper seeks to reveal the factors that predispose one to receive food aid. A sample size of 253 respondents was randomly selected from Kabbe, Katima Rural and Linyanti Constituencies. The three constituencies constitute the flood plains. Factor analysis was used to empirically identify patterns of relationships among observed factors. The results obtained show that five factor components, namely, capacity to farm, climate risk awareness, household economic status, past economic opportunities, and household labour with eigenvalues of ≥ 1 are invaluable to eligibility to food aid. These factors have proven to be responsible for about 68% of the total variance and are thus, vital for predisposing rural households to receiving food aid in the study area. By addressing and taking measures on the variables of the factor components that expose households to food aid, rural households in the study area would most likely stay away from relying on food aid.Item Determinants of farmers’ decisions to cultivate crops in the Caprivi region of Namibia: A logistics analysis(2012) Nyambe, Jacob M.; Belete, A.Annually, rural farmers in the Caprivi region are faced with making difficult choices of whether or not to cultivate their crop fields. The choice farmers make is influenced by the presence of wild animals, climate risk factors, and prospects of future food aid-rollouts. This study investigates key identified determinants to rural farmers’ decisions to cultivate their crop fields amidst the three mentioned influencers. Using a structured questionnaire, 253 respondents were interviewed on a face to face basis. Random sampling was used in selecting the respondents. The respondents resided in the flood plains where they had access to food aid for a period of 5 years. The central livelihood strategy for the respondents is agriculture. A logistics model was used to analyze the data. The results revealed that the household food bill, age of the head of the household, and the value and availability of food aid were essential determinants of a rural farmer’s decision to cultivate his/her crop field. It also came out that rolling out food aid to rural farmers for a period of ≤ 5 years has little effect on their crop production commitments. A longer period may become a disincentive to crop farming in favor of food aid.