Abstract:
Although motivations vary across households, livelihood diversification is commonly
adopted as a coping strategy against income-poverty and food insecurity in Africa.
Income-poverty is disproportionately the main integral dimension of poverty in relative
countries across Sub-Saharan Africa. This study investigated the extent to which rural
livelihood diversification contribute to income-poverty alleviation in Madumeleng Village,
South Africa. This exploratory research has adopted the methodological triangulation
through qualitative and quantitative approaches. Additionally, these approaches were
convenient for specific analysis of textual, factual, observation and conceptual data as
well as to ensure credibility of the results. Moreover, normative design was applied to
observe the relationship of livelihood diversification and income-poverty alleviation as the
measurable variables of the study.
Primary data was collected in Madumeleng Village through questionnaire survey which
was administered to 144 respondents of the households. The households were selected
through simple-random sampling and, purposively sampled traditional leader through
interview schedule. The study argued that an increase in number of diverse livelihood
activities strengthens ability and potential of the household to alleviate income-poverty.
Notwithstanding poverty is multidimensional, findings of the study ascertained that most
people embrace livelihood diversification as ideal route out of poverty. However, non-farm
activities has been acknowledged as an important pathway out of income-poverty albeit
prevalent barriers such as inadequate education, inaccessible formal credit facilities and
fragmented infrastructure. The study recommended measures such as provision of
quality rural infrastructure development and establishment of skills acquisition training
programmes by local government authority, to widen access of the poor into non-farm
activities and grant poor people an opportunity to eradicate entry barriers of high return
livelihoods
