Econometric Analysis of Rural Households’ Resilience to Food Insecurity in West Shoa, Ethiopia

Abstract

The major objective of this study is to analyze rural households’ capability to absorb the negative consequences of unexpected shocks using seven resilience blocs based on the framework of resilience analysis. Resilience index was defined as a function of agricultural inputs and technology, social safety nets, access to public services, access to food and income, access to assets, stability and adaptive capacity. The estimation of each bloc was made separately using different multivariate techniques, where the result becomes covariates in the measurement of resilience index. The estimation of resilience index was done using factor analysis and three factors were retained. Under the first factor, all blocs, except access to public services, are positively correlated with resilience. The negative correlation between access to public services and resilience is because observed variables like health services and education qualities decreases as households become poorer. In terms of importance to rural household’s resilience index, the result indicates that asset ownership play significant role followed by access to food and income, as well as social safety nets. These resilience blocs show the likelihood of recovering from any form of climatic shocks that a household experiences. In the second factor, access to public services becomes positive, which shows that it is a positive characteristic of resilience. Adaptive capacity is positive in the first factor and negative in the second factor. The third factor triggers hidden information of the resilience bloc as stability and adaptive capacity are positive, which likely tells common story in terms of food security situations. In conclusion, poor households have limited or no access to physical and financial assets, little education, and often suffer from human illness and livestock diseases/death. Poor households lack access to sufficient, high-quality land and other natural resources or to remunerative resources of income and agricultural production boosting activities. Therefore, it is recommended that households should have supplements with preconditions and options available to them in terms of capabilities and activities such as agricultural production boosting and income-generating activities, access to assets, improving the quality of public services, social safety nets and adaptive capacity.