Analysis of households\u2019 vulnerability to food insecurity and its influencing factors in East Hararghe, Ethiopia

Million Sileshi,Stefan Sieber,Reuben Kadigi,Khamaldin Mutabazi

doi:10.1186/s40008-019-0174-y

Abstract

Previous studies on food insecurity in many developing countries, including Ethiopia, have mainly focused on current food insecurity, lacking the ex-ante analysis. An understanding of household vulnerability to food insecurity is critically important to inform the formulation of policies and strategies to enhance food security and reduce vulnerability to food insecurity among smallholder farmers. This paper analyses vulnerability to food insecurity of farming households using the vulnerability as expected poverty (VEP) approach. The paper is based on cross-section data collected from a sample of 408 households in East Hararghe, Ethiopia, selected using a multi-stage sampling procedure. The factors which influenced vulnerability to food insecurity were analyzed using the Feasible General Least Squares regression model. The results of analysis indicate that vulnerability to food insecurity increased with the age of household head (P < 0.1), and family size (P < 0.01). It decreased with access to improved seeds (P < 0.01), adoption of soil and water conservation (P < 0.01), size of cultivated land (P < 0.1), and access to credits (P < 0.1). Based on the intensity of their vulnerability, households were grouped as chronic food insecure (24.27%), transient food insecure (11.77%), highly vulnerable-food secure (18.38%), and low vulnerable-food secure (45.59%). Overall, about 54% of households were categorized as vulnerable to food insecurity. These included households who were food insecure at the time of the survey (36.02%) and those who were categorized as transient food secure group (18.38%). These findings imply that food insecurity policies and interventions in developing countries should focus not only on households that are currently food insecure, but also on those categorized as transient food insecure or households that are more likely to be food insecure in the near future.

Highlights

Despite her double-digit economic growth rate since 2005, Ethiopia ranks 174th out of 188 countries in the 2015 UN Human Development Index and 104th out of 119 countries in the Global Hunger Index classified as suffering from a ‘serious’ level of hunger (IFPRI 2017)
5 Conclusions Access to adequate and sufficient food in many developing countries, such as Ethiopia, is unstable. This means that the status of food insecurity of many households in these countries varies over time and is inherently dynamic in nature
The results indicate that 36.03% and 42.64% of the total households suffered from current and future food insecurity, respectively

Summary

Introduction

Despite her double-digit economic growth rate since 2005, Ethiopia ranks 174th out of 188 countries in the 2015 UN Human Development Index and 104th out of 119 countries in the Global Hunger Index classified as suffering from a ‘serious’ level of hunger (IFPRI 2017). Sileshi et al Economic Structures (2019) 8:41 constitute 40.4 and 8.7%, respectively (IFPRI 2015) which suggests that food insecurity is a serious problem in the country and that many households are vulnerable to it. There are efforts to reduce the prevalence of poverty and vulnerability to food insecurity (VFI), both chronic and transitory food insecurity persist at the household level and millions of people are still vulnerable due to different shocks and stresses. The main goal of these programs is to improve the food security status of chronically and transitory food-insecure people through resettlement programs, household asset building programs, as well as complimentary community investment, including public works projects such as soil and water conservation (SWC) practices, road construction, and natural resource rehabilitation. Studies indicate that levels of poverty and vulnerability in Ethiopia remain very high (IFPRI 2015; FAO 2016; Dercon and Christiaensen 2011; Fentaw et al 2013; Dercon et al 2012; Kumar and Quisumbing 2012). The FAO (2016) situation report indicates that more than 10.2 million people needed food assistance in 2016, more than at any other time since 2006

Methods

Results

Conclusion