Livelihoods of Ethnic Minority Households in Dak Lak Province

Dak Lak province has 47 ethnic minorities with 97, 893 households and 540,365 inhabitants, accounting for 31.97% of the provincial population. The poverty rate of ethnic minorities is higher than the overall poverty rate in the province. The high rate of poor households can be explained by the fact that ethnic livelihoods are solely based agricultural farming, lack of livelihood resources, and low and instable income from livelihood activities. Livelihood activities and income differ from one national minority to another due to the differences in cultivation practices, productive capacity , capacity of coping with risks and the success from government and organizational support. Successful production model and diversified livelihoods of some ethnic minority households indicate that if people have the good will and determine to overcome difficulties together with reasonable support from state agencies and organizations, they can generate jobs and increase income to ensure the livelihood not only of his family but also the local community. Solutions to help ethnic minority households of Dak Lak for sustainable livelihood development in the future are proposed.