Determinants and Dimensions of Household Food Insecurity in Dire Dawa Town, Ethiopia

Abstract

Based on primary data collected from 200 household in 2005, this study scrutinizes determinants and the extent of food insecurity in Dire Dawa town. A binary logit model has identified household size, daily income and proportion of expenditure on food, education of household head, sex of household head, access to credit and marital status of the household as significant determinants of food insecurity in the study area. The FGT index result has revealed that 43% of the sampled households cannot meet the daily recommended caloric requirement with a food insecurity gap of 13%. The findings call for action-based advocacy on family planning to curb population growth, provision of technical training to the unemployed that enhances job creativity and competitiveness on the market, access to credit for the needy with proper targeting criterion and expansion of both formal and informal education.