Author

  • Ernest Ngeh Tingum

    • Department of Economics, University of Namibia (UNAM), Windhoek, Namibia
    • Namibia

  • Ademola Kuponiyi

    • Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Oyo State, Nigeria
    • Nigeria

Abstract

Most smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan African need to diversify into nonfarm/off-farm income generating activities in order to ensure household food security through optimum consumption expenditure. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of off-farm income on rural household food consumption expenditure in Lesotho, using secondary data from a comprehensive and representative Household Budget Survey of 2017. The survey design for data collection adopted a two stage stratified sampling procedure. The analysis used two econometric models. The OLS regressions were employed to identify important determinants of household food consumption expenditure and Instrumental Variable (IV) approach was employed to account for endogeneity issues. The results revealed a consistent positive and significant effect of off-farm income on household food consumption expenditure across all models. Household size, transfers and remittances were found to increase household food consumption expenditure significantly and positively. Government is advised to encourage and improve conditions under which rural smallholder farmers could participate in off-farm income generating activities.

Keywords

References

  • Ajaero, C. K. & Onokala, P. C. (2013). The Effects of Rural-Urban Migration on Rural Communities of Southeastern Nigeria. International Journal of Population Research.
  • Akpan, S. (2013). Determinants of Food Consumption Expenditure among Agro-Based Firms Workers in Southern Nigeria: Simultaneous Equation Approach. Asian Journal of Agricultural Extension, Economics & Sociology, 69-84.
  • Babatunde, R. O. & Qaim, M. (2010). Impact of off-farm income on food security and nutrition in Nigeria. Food Policy, 35(4), 303-311.
  • Beyene, F. & Muche, M. (2010). Determinants of food security among rural households of Central Ethiopia: An empirical analysis. Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture, 49(892-2016-65219), 299-318.
  • Ellis, F. (1998). Household strategies and rural livelihood diversification. Journal of Development Studies, 35(1), 1-38.
  • Ellis, F. (1999). Rural Livelihood Diversity in Developing Countries: Evidence and Policy Implications. Overseas Development Institute, London, 40(1), 1-10.
  • Ellis, F. (2000). The determinants of rural livelihood diversification in developing countries. Journal of Agricultural Economics, 51(2), 289-302.
  • Gazuma, E. G. (2018). An Empirical Examination of the Determinants of Food Insecurity among Rural Farm Households: Evidence from Kindo Didaye District of Southern Ethiopia. Business and Economics Journal, 9(345), 2.
  • Idowu, A. O., Awoyemi, T. T., Omonona, B. T. & Falusi, A. O. (2011). Non-farm income diversification and poverty among rural farm households in southwest Nigeria. European Journal of Social Sciences.
  • Jacobson, D., Mavrikiou, P. M. & Minas, C. (2010). Household size, income and expenditure on food: The case of Cyprus. Journal of Socio-Economics, 39(2), 319-328.
  • Lewbel, A. (2012). Using heteroscedasticity to identify and estimate mismeasured and endogenous regressor models. Journal of Business and Economic Statistics, 30(1), 67-80.
  • Mishra, A. K., Mottaleb, K. A. & Mohanty, S. (2015). Impact of off-farm income on food expenditures in rural Bangladesh: An unconditional quantile regression approach. Agricultural Economics (United Kingdom), 46(2), 139-148.
  • Mishra, V. & Smyth, R. (2015). Estimating returns to schooling in urban China using conventional and heteroskedasticity-based instruments. Economic Modelling, 46, 166-173.
  • Mitiku, A., Fufa, B. & Tadese, B. (2012). Emperical analysis of the determinants of rural households food security in Southern Ethiopia: The case of Shashemene District. In Basic Research Journal of Agricultural Science and Review, 1(6), 132-8.
  • National Institute of Statistics, Directorate General for Health, & ICF International. (2015). Lesotho Demographic and health survey 2014. In Lesotho Ministry of Health.
  • OECD/FAO. (2018). Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa: Prospects and Challenges for the Next Decade, OECDFAO Agricultural Outlook 2016-2025. In OECD Publishing.
  • Osarfo, D., Senadza, B. & Nketiah-Amponsah, E. (2016). The Impact of Nonfarm Activities on Rural Farm Household Income and Food Security in the Upper East and Upper West Regions of Ghana. Theoretical Economics Letters.
  • Owusu, V., Abdulai, A. & Abdul-Rahman, S. (2011). Non-farm work and food security among farm households in Northern Ghana. Food Policy.
  • Paul, K. N., Hamdiyah, A. & Samuel, A. D. (2014). Food expenditure and household welfare in Ghana. African Journal of Food Science.
  • Plath, J. C., Holland, D. W. & Carvalho, J. W. (1987). Labor migration in Southern Africa and agricultural development: some lessons from Lesotho. Journal of Developing Areas, 159-176.
  • Rantšo, T. A. (2016). The role of the non-farm sector in rural development in Lesotho. In Journal of Modern African Studies.
  • Rantšo, T. A. & Seboka, M. (2019). Agriculture and food security in Lesotho: Government sponsored block farming programme in the Berea, Leribe and Maseru Districts. Cogent Food & Agriculture.
  • Silici, L. (2010). Conservation agriculture and sustainable crop intensification in Lesotho. Integrated Crop Management.
  • Wang, T., Maruyama, A. & Kikuchi, M. (2000). Rural-urban migration and labor markets in China: A case study in a Northeastern province. Developing Economies.
  • World Bank. (2018). Climate-Smart Agriculture in Lesotho. CSA Country Profiles for Africa Series.

Downloads

No downloads have been recorded for this article yet. Figures appear here once readers begin downloading the full text.

How to Cite

Tingum, E. N., & Kuponiyi, A. (2020). Determinants of Rural Household Food Consumption Expenditure in Lesotho: Impact of Off-farm Income. Journal of Social and Development Sciences, 11(1(S), 27-35. https://doi.org/10.22610/jsds.v11i1(S).3074

Share this article

License

Copyright (c) 2020 Ernest Ngeh Tingum, Ademola Kuponiyi (Author)

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Author (s) should affirm that the material has not been published previously. It has not been submitted and it is not under consideration by any other journal. At the same time author (s) need to execute a publication permission agreement to assume the responsibility of the submitted content and any omissions and errors therein. After submission of revised paper in the light of suggestions of the reviewers, the editorial team  edits and formats manuscripts to bring uniformity and standardization in published material.

This work will be licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) and under condition of the license, users are free to read, copy, remix, transform, redistribute, download, print, search or link to the full texts of articles and even build upon their work as long as they credit the author for the original work. Moreover, as per journal policy author (s) hold and retain copyrights without any restrictions.

Keywords

Section

Research Paper

Published in

Vol. 11 No. 1(S) (2020) Economy, Policy & Heritage View issue contents

Published

2020-11-13

Submissions

Have research to publish? Journal of Social and Development Sciences welcomes submissions.

Make a Submission