Effect of Productive Safety Net Program On Livelihood of Smallholder Farmers in Ethiopia: Meta-Analysis

Abstract

One way of mitigating smallholder farmers’ vulnerability to shocks is through expanding productive safety net program in rural area which highly affected with drought and climate change. The major aim of safety net program is to build asset accumulation and to reduce food insecurity. Several numbers of scholars have made investigation on PSNP to know the effect of it on livelihood outcome and the obtained results were contradicted (positive, negative and no effect). Hence, this meta-analysis was aimed to direct and quantify the effect of safety net program on livelihood outcome (food security, income, asset accumulation and livestock holding) from the literature with productive safety net program. Based on inclusion and exclusion criterion, 20 studies published from 2011 to 2022 were included during this meta-analysis. Random effect model was used to evaluate the effect size of productive safety net intervention on farmer’s outcome in Ethiopia. Results of random effect model confirmed that program intervention were positive and significant effect on food security. Therefore, policy makers and other stakeholders should expand productive safety net program in rural areas which exaggerated with natural disaster in Ethiopia.