Determinants of Rural Household Food Insecurity and Local Coping Strategies: The Case of Hoko District in Sidama Region, Ethiopia

doi:10.7176/jbah/12-3-03

Abstract

There are myriad of factors contributing for household food insecurity in rural households in Ethiopia Several efforts have been put in place to alleviate food insecurity globally, nationally and even locally. Despite these efforts, the situation continues to prevail and sometimes even increase in the contemporary human society. It is therefore imperative that food insecurity gets addressed appropriately. Therefore, this study sought to investigate household food insecurity and coping strategies rural households in the study area. A mixed method study design was used to attain the objectives of the study. A total of 382 sample households (308 male and 74 female) selected from 5 kebeles of the district were interviewed using structured and semi structured interview schedule. Qualitative data were collected using focus group discussion and key informant interview. Data analysis was done with the help of STATA 13. A binary logistic regression model was also employed to identify factors affecting farmer’s adoption of common bean technologies in the area. The result of a descriptive statistics revealed that more than 62% of the study participant were food insecure and the remaining 37.3 were on food secure category. The result of a binary logistic regression model showed that the covariates sex of household head, age of household head, landholding size, livestock holding and off farm income size have a statistically significant positive relationship with the food security status of a household in the study area. The overall findings of the study revealed that a monotonous dietary pattern is prevalent and manifested among majority of the study participants. Therefore, all the necessary awareness creation and training on preparing different types of well-diversified recipes by using locally available farm produce such as Enset should be done by concerned bodies. Keywords: Coping strategies, food insecurity, rural households DOI: 10.7176/JBAH/12-3-03 Publication date: February 28 th 2022

Highlights

The concept of food security has evolved over time
As can be seen in table 1, the percentage of food insecure households take the prodigious share of the total study participant households 62.3% had low Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) and the remaining 37.3% had high HDDS (6 and above)
It indicate that food insecurity in terms of dietary diversity and quality is less diverse among majority of households in the study area

Summary

Introduction

The concept of food security has evolved over time. Food security as an issue became prominent in the 1970s and has been a topic of considerable attention since (Maxwell, 1996). The most widely agreed definition of food security was introduced by (FAO, 1996) which defined food security as “a situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe and nutritious food for normal growth and development and an active and healthy life”. According to this definition, factors that may lead to a situation of food insecurity include nonavailability of food lack of access, improper utilization and instability over a certain time period. In particular developing countries, such as Ethiopia, have been facing severe version of this problem over a longer period of time (Tesfahun and Osman, 2003)

Methods

Results

Conclusion