DETERMINANTS OF RURAL HOUSEHOLDS FOOD INSECURITY IN LEMO WOREDA OF HADIYA ZONE

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.