This paper offers a new, comparative perspective on income diversification in African agriculture. Comparative analysis using household data from three quite different sites -in Cote d'Ivoire, Kenya and Rwanda reveals distinct livelihood strategies, some of which offer demonstrably superior returns relative to others. We argue that local market failures cause asset endowments and market access to condition the livelihood strategies among which different households can choose, leading to a more nuanced relationship between poverty and non-farm income earnings than the existing literature recognizes.