DETERMINANTS OF POVERTY IN RURAL HOUSEHOLDS (THE CASE OF DAMOT GALE WOREDA: WOLAYTA ZONE) A HOUSEHOLD LEVEL ANALYSIS

Abstract

The study was carried out at Damot Gale Woreda of Wolayta Zone in Southern Nation Nationalities Regional State with the main objectives to describe correlates or determinants of rural poverty in the study area. In order to attain this objective the study made use of cross-sectional household survey data collected from 235 sample households .The data collected were analyzed and discussed applying FGT measure of poverty i.e. poverty head count index, poverty gap and severity. Using cost of basic needs approach; the study found that total poverty line (food and non food poverty line) of the study area was about 3612.151birr per year per adult equivalent consumption. Using this poverty line as bench mark the study indicated that 56.17 percent of the households were poor. The result of the logistic regression model revealed that out of 18 variables included in the model, 13 explanatory variables were found to be significant at 1%, 5% and 10% level. Accordingly, family size, household head sex, household age, dependency ratio and marital status were found to have positive association with poverty of the household and statistically significant. Mean while Age square, cultivated land size, oxen, access to credit, off farm activity, household health, remittance, and market access were found out to have strong negative association with the households poverty status and statistically significant up to less than 10% level of significance.