The conceptual framework for this study was mainly based
on the theory of rural household decision making reviewed
in Udry (1996) and on empirical literature. There is a
general consensus that differences between households in
asset endowment, especially land and the control over it,
within households are the principal factors that affect
household or individual decisions to participate in different
livelihood activities (Reardon et al. 1992; Dercon 1998;
Ellis 2000; Barret et al. 2001). Rural people without access
to land or with smaller land plots have lesser chances
to increase agricultural crop productivity (Feder 1985;
Dorward 1999) and are expected to be more likely to
diversify their livelihood strategies (Barett et al. 2001),
for example by acquiring livestock in addition to crop
582 L. H. Dossa et al.
123
production. Hence, household or individual land ownership
and farm size were expected to be inversely related to the
decision to keep small ruminants.
Furthermore, inadequate access to financial markets,
such as savings, credits, and insurances, hinders the ability
of rural people to invest in activities that are important to
them and determines an individual or household’s decisions
to engage in other income generating activities (Feder
1985; Binswanger and Rosenzweig 1986; De Janvry et al.
1991). Where formal financial markets for rural households
are poorly developed, keeping livestock represents a means
of finance and self-insurance and thus a risk-coping strategy
for many rural people (Rosenzweig and Wolpin 1993;
Barett et al. 2001; Katsushi 2003). Because small ruminants
are liquid assets that can easily be converted into cash
(Dercon 1998), it was expected that households or individual
household members lacking access to formal credit
are more likely to decide to keep these species. However,
even where some credit markets exist in southern Benin,
land and off-farm income are important collaterals
(Hoffman and Heidhues 1993; Neef and Heidhues 1994).
Therefore, it was expected that large land holding and
participation in off-farm employment increase access to
credit and affect negatively household or individual’s
decision to keep small ruminants.
Generally in rural sub-Saharan Africa (Smith 2000) and
more specifically in the farming system of southern Benin
(Floquet 2000), younger farm household heads are more
likely to migrate in search for non-agricultural wage jobs,
and older farm household heads are less likely to be
working off-farm. Therefore a positive and significant
relationship between the age of the head of household and
the decision of the household to keep small ruminants as
strategies of farm diversification was expected.
Rural African women generally have limited access to
household’s land and receive limited land use rights from
their husbands (Neef and Heidhues 1994; Quisumbing
et al. 2001). In addition to their heavy domestic chores
and child care, they have to work in their husband’s farm
plots and have therefore very little time and opportunity
for off-farm employment (Roberts 1996; Abdulai and
Delgado 1999). This implies that they may have more
restricted access to credit than men. However, Udvardy
and Cattel (1992) found that mature farm wives usually
have more control over household assets and less
domestic workload and childcare responsibilities and are
more likely to be involved in off-farm activities than
younger ones. This implies that they may have more
access to formal credit. Therefore one can expect that
they are less likely to own small ruminants. In other
words, the likelihood of a female household member to
own small ruminants was expected to be negatively
associated with age.
Many studies (Feinerman and Finkelshtain 1996; Dercon
1998; Ghadim and Pannell 1999; Beckford 2002) have provided
evidence that individual household members’ risk
preferences and their perceptions of the benefits, costs, and
riskiness play a significant role in the choice of different
livelihood alternatives available to them. Therefore, the
individual decision to keep a given species of small ruminants
was expected to be strongly affected by the risk preferences
and perceived benefits associated with each species. Sometimes,
species that are associated with better profits are also
perceived to be riskier. In such cases, differences in riskaverse
between individual decision makers may explain their
choices of species to own (Dercon 1998).
Additionally, household or individual decision-making
process is also influenced by the culture of the community
(Reijnjtes et al. 1992). In many African societies, keeping
some livestock species is not compatible with certain cultures
and traditions (Weissenborn 1906; Thurnwald 1929).
Therefore, it was expected that the cultural background
(i.e., ethnicity and religion) of a household or individual
household member affects the decision to keep a given
specie