Abstract:
The struggle to achieve food security at the household level in the rural areas of Ethiopia dates
back a long period. Yet it is a challenging issue. Intervene the distinguishing, factors that
influence food insecurity, and understanding the rural households are got paramount
importance to development practitioners and policy makers out. In light of this, the objective of
the study is to identify the determinants of food insecurity Hadiya Zone. To achieve these
objectives biophysical; demographic and socio-economic data were collected from 394
randomly selected households in Hadiya Zone Lemo Woreda. A three-step sampling procedure
was used to select 6 kebeles. A survey was conducted to collect the primary data from sample
respondents. To supplement primary data secondary data were collected from various sources.
The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics like mean, standard deviation, percentage
and frequency distribution. Test statistics like the T-test and Chi-square tests were also used to
describe characteristics of food-secure and food-insecure groups. The survey result shows that
about 57 percent of sample farmers were food insecure. A binary logit model was used to
identify the determinants of food insecurity. A total of eleven explanatory variables, 6
continuous and 5 categorical, were included in the empirical model. Out of these, eight were
found to be statistically significant. These variables include dependency ratio, use of credit, use
of improved seed, pest and insect infection, age of household, sex of household, income of
household and expenditure of household. The estimated model correctly predicted 95% of the
sample cases, 100% food insecure and 97% food insecure. The findings suggest the following
set of policy recommendation. Action based awareness creation on the impacts of population
growth at family, community and national level, provision of technical skill training to the
unemployed that enhance the job creativity of the participants should be promoted extensively.
Access of credit to the needy and trained people needs to be provided with proper targeting
criterion.
