Title : Determinants of Farmers’ Participation in Off-Farm Employment in South District, Yangon Region

Keywords : determinants, participation, off-farm, employment, individual, household, agriculture, characteristics

Authors : Hnin Hnin Aung

Description : The alternative or supplemental income opportunities primarily through off-farm employment are important in the most rural area. This paper explores the determinants of agricultural households’ participation in off-farm employment. The study used a primary data collected from 395 randomly selected households using face to face interviews. To discover this issue, the logit model is applied to identify factors that determine the participation in offfarm employment. In this approach, the determinants of participation in off-farm employment are categorized namely individual characteristics, household characteristics and the characteristic of agricultural activities. The results of this analysis show that the important determinant that influences the farmer’s decision to participate in off-farm employment is the individual characteristics and characteristics of agricultural activities. The household characteristics are not significant. This study uncovers that these characteristic of the area wherein the farmer live are important determinant of the farmers’ decision to participate in off-farm task.  In this study area, although there is the improvement of infrastructure and opportunity to participate in off-farm employment, the socio demographics factors affect to the rural employment. The policy implications from the finding of this observation is that skill based training and social support system should provide the well being of rural labour and households. Therefore, if the agricultural families are to be recommended to participate in off-farm jobs, a balanced development in the rural areas needs to be pursued.