GENDER-BASED ANALYSIS OF INCOME DIVERSIFICATION AS A STRATEGY FOR POVERTY REDUCTION IN CENTRAL BENIN (WEST AFRICA).

The fight against poverty is a permanent real challenge that rural people in central-Benin must face by developing survival strategies among which income diversification is one of the most important. Accordingly this paper attempts to analyse this strategy on a gender basis. Based on a random sample of 120 farmers (60 men and 60 women) and using diverse methods and analysis tools including farm-income statement and regression analysis, our study showed that women were more dependent on income diversification from which they, however, drew lower income than their male counterparts due to unequal access to land, on one hand, and to high return off-farm activities, on the other hand. Whereas men could diversify into higher-return activities, women were content with activities with lower-income potential because of their little requirement of initial investment. Compared to women who were specialized in farm production or only in off-farm activities because they were landless, women with diversified income achieved, in average, greater total annual income. Similar results exist between men with diversified income and those specialized only in farm production, suggesting that income diversification positively impacts famers’ income, and could therefore contribute to improving their welfare. Factors that significantly and positively influenced the level of off-farm income earned through diversifying income included, for women: the cultivated area, the age and the contact with the extension service; and for men only the cultivated area. Better access to credit and special training in resources management could help poor-farmers and women taking more advantage from income diversification.