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Lunenzi had bigger households than the rest, and would in that way be better preparedif someone got sick. Variations are also seen among income groups where themedium income households had larger households. This can be linked to the fact thatless poor households had higher diversification of activities, e.g. income from nonfarmactivities, and could therefore afford to hire labour instead. In this way we cansay that the less poor households more resilient in terms of shocks.Income diversification can be seen as a risk strategy that imply a trade-off betweenhigher total income, but greater probability of income failure, and a lower totalincome involving smaller probability of income failure (Ellis 2000). However, thishas proven to not always true regarding on-farm activities, where diversecomplementary cropping system can help increase productivity (Ibid). A great varietyof different crops were recorded in the study area, where households also had plots indifferent locations (with micro-climatic conditions, soil qualities, etc.), which also canbe seen as a diversification measure. As mentioned under natural capital, people tendto invest in such diversification measures where people invest in own land andproperty to manage risks. For the Maasai pastoralists in the area, their number oflivestock can be understood as capital and hence serve the function of managing riskfor unforeseen events, and poor times.7.3.4 Coping strategiesThe inability to act if a shock occurs denotes high vulnerability. The available assetscome and go where low ability to substitute between assets and outcomes is of crucialimportance. How people cope with income shortfalls varied a lot.In general, one may respond in the following ways; (1) Diversify income sources; (2)draw from reciprocal obligation (social capital); (3) migrate away; (4) sell assets (ex.livestock); (5) realization of fixed assets (land, house etc.) (Vedeld 2011). The mostimportant coping strategy recorded in the study area was to compensate in terms ofselling of possessions or crops, changing to work for others as labour, produce andsell charcoal for more income, switch to alternative crops, ask for assistance fromfamily (see table 9.3). Many started to use the forest as a “safety net” in periods ofhardship (see Vedeld, Angelsen et al. 2004) . This reflects a relationship between208