Item – Theses Canada

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OCLC number
428866423
Link(s) to full text
LAC copy
LAC copy
Author
Moyo, Patience Sibongile,1973-
Title
Income diversification, water access and household welfare in rural Zimbabwe.
Degree
Ph. D. -- University of Alberta, 2006
Publisher
Ottawa : Library and Archives Canada = Bibliothèque et Archives Canada, [2007]
Description
3 microfiches
Notes
Includes bibliographical references.
Abstract
Income diversification and access to domestic water resources are analyzed for households in semi-arid regions of rural Zimbabwe to highlight potential variables for welfare improvement for similar households. Agricultural and natural resource activities account for 75 percent of total gross income for all sampled households. Income from natural resource woodlands is important for the poorest households, contributing 28 percent of their total gross income. This is not the case for wealthier households for whom livestock contributes up to 21 percent of total income for the relatively wealthiest quartile. Non-farm income shares are similar across wealth quartiles. However, remittances from skilled off-farm labor predominate for the wealthier, and unskilled rural wage labor income predominate for the poorest. Overall, there is relative specialization in dryland agriculture and livestock income by wealthier households, in contrast to diversified incomes with larger shares from woodlands, rural wages and home industry for poorer households. Detailed analysis is made of water site choices and frequency of trips for domestic water provision with a focus on access to common pool water resources by households in two different land tenure systems. Property rights attributes of water sources indicating lower relative exclusivity and higher use restrictions are found to be significant in deterring water site choice. Restrictions on volumes of water are not important to site choices for households in areas with private ownership of land, in contrast to areas where land is communally owned. There is a consistent preference for domestic water sourced from relatively exclusive wells close to homesteads, rather than collection from community boreholes despite their better water quality and more reliable supply. Trip frequency to all water sites is reduced by higher travel costs (valued by labor time), but increases during dry-season months. In areas with private land ownership, on average, wealthier households demand larger water volumes per capita. From imputations of effective demand, households are prepared to pay 12 to 29 hours of labor time per cubic metre of domestic water. This is highest for households with most constrained access to water resources (double that of other households on average).
ISBN
9780494230879
0494230878