Determinants of household food Insecurity: The Case of Masha Woreda, South West Sheka Zone, SNNPR Region, Ethiopia

Abstract

Even though the struggle to achieve food security at the household level in the rural areas of Ethiopia dates back a long before, it has remained a challenging goal until today. The design and implementation of effective measures to reduce household food insecurity needs an in depth understanding of its covariates. As a result, this study was conducted with the general objectives of assessing situation, extent and severity of food insecurity and identifying factors affecting food insecurity situation in Masha woreda Sheka zone SNNPR. In order to achieve these objectives, data on demographic, socio-economic and institutional characteristics of the households was collected from 150 randomly selected households in three randomly selected kebeles of the woreda. Relevant secondary data was also gathered. The results from descriptive statistics showed that the total surveyed households, 62 percent were food insecure. In addition, results revealed that there was statistically significant difference between food insecure and food secure households with regard to different demographic, economic and institutional factors. Adult equivalent, age and dependency ratio had significant and positive effect on food insecurity while sex, cultivated land, livestock ownership in tropical livestock unit, oxen ownership, fertilizer use and income from safety net had a significant and negative effect on food insecurity. Finally based on the finding of study recommendation was made on important that the zonal and regional government should integrate development of the rural sector to spread small-scale industries throughout the rural areas and the reorientation of economic activity through promoting off-farm and non-farm employment opportunities, Use of fertilizer was found to had a negative and significant impact on household food insecurity. Furthermore, price rise in agricultural input (like fertilizer) and shortage of agricultural input were also the important causes of food deficit in the area. Therefore, government should mobilize large amount of funds to increase its supply. But as a short-term alternative to chemical fertilizer, the extension system should promote preparation and use of compost, use of organic fertilizers eradicate household food insecurity situation in study area.