TY  - JOUR
U1  - Wissenschaftlicher Artikel
A1  - Neudert, Regina
A1  - Allahverdiyeva, Naiba
A1  - Mammadov, Niyaz
A1  - Didebulidze, Alexandre
A1  - Beckmann, Volker
T1  - Diversification of Livestock-Keeping Smallholders in Mountainous Rural Regions of Azerbaijan and Georgia
JF  - Land
N2  - Diversified livelihoods combining farming, livestock keeping and non-farm income arecharacteristic of many rural households worldwide.  For the Central Asian and Caucasian region,livestock keeping is especially important in terms of land use and socio-cultural heritage. We contributeto the literature with data from the under-researched Caucasus region and investigate: (i) the extent ofdiversification in smallholder households; (ii) the role of livestock keeping in diversification; (iii) theinfluence of household-specific and location-specific variables and diversification on householdincome.   Based on a dataset of 303 households, we calculate contribution margins for the mainagricultural activities, household income, and diversification indices and analyze the influence ofdiversification, asset and location variables on household income with a regression model. Householdincome is generally diversified and a combination of four income sources (crops, livestock, poultry/beesand social benefits) was the most frequent. The econometric analysis shows that higher householdincomes are positively correlated with higher household land and livestock assets, the presence ofnon-farm work and social benefit income sources and with an increasing specialization as measuredby the diversification index. For enhancing rural household incomes and slowing down rural-urbanmigration, the development of non-farm job opportunities is recommended.
KW  - -
KW  - household income
KW  - smallholder
KW  - Caucasus
KW  - rural regions
KW  - diversification
KW  - agriculture
KW  - livestock keeping
KW  - arable farming
KW  - socio-economic analyses
KW  - contribution margin
Y1  - 2020
UN  - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:9-opus-39402
SN  - 2073-445X
SS  - 2073-445X
U6  - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/land9080267
DO  - https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.3390/land9080267
VL  - 9
IS  - 8
PB  - MDPI
CY  - Basel
ER  -