Investigating the Relationship between Economic and Social Sustainability and Livelihood Diversity

The agricultural-dependent economy is vulnerable to the threatening factors associated with climate change and structural problems in the field of agriculture. Accordingly, a survey was conducted using a questionnaire to investigate if there are any relationship between rural economic and social sustainability and the likelihood to diversify the income sources. The population of interest consisted of rural households living in rural areas of Bavi County, Khuzestan Province (N=6670), of which a sample of 260 individuals, including household heads, using cluster sampling method was selected. The results showed that about 55% of the respondents lacked diversity of livelihoods; their economic and social sustainability was moderate to low, and demonstrated undesirable conditions. The results of the cross tabulations indicated a positive and significant relationship between their economic sustainability and likelihood of diversification among the villagers. Furthermore, comparing means of economic sustainability between those who diversified their livelihood and those who did not, revealed a statistically significant difference at 5% level of confidence. In other words, those occupied in more diverse ways and showed a more diverse sources of income experienced higher economic sustainability. Finally, investigation of the factors affecting the likelihood of diversification using logistic regression test demonstrated that the most important factors influencing the possibility of diversification included type of the land ownership, owning a car, attending in technical and vocational training courses. Accordingly, some educational and executive suggestions were offered to encourage diversification of the livelihood among rural people.