Abstract
Market access influences the dietary diversity and food security for smallholder households in many ways. In Ethiopia, most smallholders are subsistence farmers who have poor access to markets. This study used primary data from a household survey to examine the relationship between market access and the dietary diversity and food security for 324 smallholder households in the Yayu area of southwestern Ethiopia in early 2018. Multivariate regression analysis showed that households located far from market centers consumed not only less diverse foods but also spend less on food consumption than households located close to market centers. The correlation between market access and food security measured by Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) did not reach statistical significance, nor did the impact of market access on household consumption and dietary diversity through income. Rather, greater market access appeared to encourage smallholder households to rely on market purchases more than their own production to improve the diversity of household consumption. A direct action to improve the market accessibility would be investments in infrastructure to expand rural road connectivity, which would reduce transaction costs and benefit the welfare of smallholder farmers and communities.
Highlights
Food insecurity and undernutrition rates are high in many Sub-Saharan African countries (UNDP 2012)
This study aims to understand the extent to which market access contributes to the dietary diversity and food security of smallholder households in the Yayu area of southwestern Ethiopia
To model the level of dietary diversity and food security reported by household i, a reduced regression model was estimated as follows: DDi 1⁄4 β0 þ β1Mi þ β2Xi þ εi where DDi is the outcome of interest; Mi is access to market indicator, Xi represents all other sociodemographic characteristics that could potentially influence dietary diversity and food security status of the households, and β1 measures the relationship of interest, meaning the effect of market access on the household dietary diversity and food security
Summary
Food insecurity and undernutrition rates are high in many Sub-Saharan African countries (UNDP 2012). Around 815 million people were estimated to be chronically undernourished in 2016 (FAO, IFAD, UNICEF, WFP, and WHO 2017). Agricultural production remains the main source of livelihood for many rural households, and this industry employs over 60% of the labor force in Sub-Saharan Africa (Thornton et al 2011). The link between agriculture and security of food and nutrition is, at first sight, straightforward. Most of the poor and undernourished people live in smallholder households, defined as small farms operating within a smallscale model of agriculture (Ogutu et al 2020). The empirical evidence that links agriculture and nutrition outcome appears weak (Webb and Kennedy 2014)
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