Relationship between Livelihood Assets and Strategies of Small-Scale Farmers: Evidences from Rain-Fed Areas of the Punjab, Pakistan (original) (raw)

Present research was designed to access the relationship, between livelihood capitals and strategies of small-scale farmers in rain-fed areas of Pakistan. Results highlighted that households possessed limited human, financial, physical, social and natural assets. Chi-square statistics showed a highly significant relationship (P<0.05) between livelihood assets and diversification strategies. It was found that social asset was highly influenced and depends upon income level of households as a majority (67.0%) of the poor people with a low income level had a low level of financial capital. The preference or choice of livelihood strategies by different income groups was measured through a chi-square test of independence (χ 2 = 1 2 2. 7 7 0) which shows that the majority (79.3%) of low income households used farming as their only major livelihood strategy. Due to which they were considered as more prone to poverty as the high majority (98.0%) of households were facing the problem of poverty and hunger (98.0%) at the household level. The results of multiple regression analysis showed that the problem of poverty & hunger (PPH) can easily be estimated from livelihood assets of respondents. 