Determinants of Rural Poverty in Southern Ethiopia: Empirical Evidence from Gedeo Zone

doi:10.7176/jesd/11-7-06

Abstract

Poverty especially in the rural areas has turned out to be a great global social and economic challenge in this 21 st century. Poverty is a complex, interlocked and multidimensional phenomenon. It is lack and deprivations of decent life sustaining resources that people experiences at various degrees so as different life chances. This study was carried out in southern Ethiopia with empirical evidence from Gedeo zone. The specific objective of the study was to investigate determinants of rural poverty. In order to achieve its objective, the study made use of the primary data collected through survey and interview using semi structured questionnaire. The study employed a multi-stage sampling procedure for sample selection. Employing cross sectional design, the research was undertaken on a random sample of 325 households in the study area. An absolute poverty line set in the study area using CBN approach; based on food basket of 2200 Kcal per adult per day was used to identify the poor from non-poor households. Accordingly, the absolute poverty line of Birr 4463.35 was used in the study area. The binary logistic regression model was employed so as to investigate determinants of rural poverty in the study area. The model output revealed that the number of livestock holding, land size , number of chicken owned, beehives ownership, Annual Income per Adult Equivalent, use of modern agricultural inputs , involvement in non-farm activities and saving habit of households were variables found with negative impact and significant determinants of poverty. Whereas, the variables with positive impact on household poverty and found to be significant were family size, age of household head and dependency ratio. Therefore, alleviation of rural poverty in the study area in particular and rural Ethiopia in general requires policy formulation and adoption of strategies with respect to those variables found to have a significant effect on poverty status of rural households. Keywords: Rural, poverty; Logistic regression; Determinants DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-7-06 Publication date: April 30 th 2020

Highlights

Poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon and its manifestations are deep, pervasive and intractable any where in developing world
Poverty Lines To investigate the determinants of poverty, first poverty line should be calculated for the study area on the basis of predetermined cost of obtaining the 2200 kcal per adult per day minimum calorie requirement for subsistence and this is consistent with (Ravallion and Bidani, 1994)
The food poverty line calculated was found to be ETB Birr 3952.74. This food poverty line is divided by the food share of the poorest 25 per cent of the population to arrive at the absolute poverty line

Summary

Introduction

Poverty is a multi-dimensional phenomenon and its manifestations are deep, pervasive and intractable any where in developing world It has been indicated in ( Todaro,1997) that it is a condition in which the underprivileged part of the society do not have and lack access to adequate food, shelter, education and health services, are exposed to violence, and live in state of unemployment, vulnerability and powerlessness. It has a variety of indicators such as levels of income, consumption, social and of vulnerability to risks and socio-political access and participation. Development efforts, social mobilization, investment and renewed attention from States will need to focus on rural areas (IPC-IG, 2019)

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