CONCLUSION
Based upon the evidence gleaned during this review, we have found it very difficult to draw many general conclusions about how livelihood diversification as a separate strategy feeds into the process by which rural people construct sustainable livelihoods, or its long-term impact. One of the main reasons for this is the fact that this subject has not been tackled directly and comprehensively before because: (i) it is very context-bound in content and form; (ii) it is difficult to trace trends over many years, and; (iii) an overt focus on income and income distribution by many researchers has limited the analysis undertaken. But most importantly, and as we pointed out in the discussion of migration and agricultural intensification, livelihood diversification is very complex and all-encompassing strategy, so disentangling the various components and factors surrounding it is difficult in any particular context. But it still needs to be carried out if we are to be able to identify its key limitations and opportunities. In spite of these initial caveats, we have been able to draw four main conclusions
First, livelihood diversification is normal for most people in the majority of rural areas of developing countries in both Africa and Asia, and non-agricultural activities are critical components of the diversification process. Livelihood diversification activities are very likely to be central to the construction of sustainable livelihoods, and their importance will not diminish in the near future. Rather, we expect their importance to increase.
Second, livelihood diversification is pursued for a mixture of motivations, and these vary according to context: from a desire to accumulate to invest, to a need to spread risk or maintain incomes, to a requirement to adapt to survive in eroding circumstances, or some combination of these. It cannot and should not be characterized by the nature of short-term outcomes associated with it as these are too diverse to categorize, they rely upon a multitude of interdependent factors, and their long-term effects are little understood
Third, and linked to above, the character of livelihood diversification is dependent primarily upon the context within which it is occurring - this includes the differential access to diversification activities and the distribution of the benefits of diversification. These likewise need to be examined as hey change over time.
Fourth, and finally, the poorest rural groups probably have the fewest opportunities to diversify in a way that will lead to accumulation for investment purposes. This does not mean that they will not be able to diversify to this end over the long term, or that they will not make investments of, for example, labour, to build up their assets, or that they will not be able develop access to diversification opportunities via social means. These issues have not been adequately addressed by research. Rather, the fact of rural people’s engagement in livelihood diversification activities has been used by some researchers to demonstrate the vulnerability of these groups – the implication being that this type of diversification is mainly associated with a negative set of circumstances. As was seen above, this is not necessarily true. In fact is it probably untrue in many situations. This provides an essential focus for further research into livelihood diversification.