Impact of Urban Agriculture on Poverty Reduction among Households in Hossana Town of Hadiya zone, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Urban agriculture is the production of food and non-food items within the urban area and its periphery, for home consumption and/or for the urban market. Although urban agriculture has a significant impact in fulfilling the basic demand of low-income households, it still lacks proper consideration and the right full place for policy-makers, urban planners, and authorities. This study tried to evaluate the impact of urban agriculture on poverty reduction at household level in Hossana Town using crosssectional data obtained from 176 urban households selected from three kebeles. Factors affecting households’ participation in urban agriculture were identified using binary logit model while propensity score matching was used to evaluate the impact of urban agriculture on poverty reduction (by using proxy consumption expenditure and asset building). Furthermore, this study also examined the extent of participation of urban households in urban agriculture with the help of secondary data. The binary logistic result revealed that variables such as household size, income from other sources, access to credit, access to water, access to extension services and access to the improved inputs significantly enhanced participation of urban agriculture practice except for income from other sources. The results from the propensity score matching showed the participation of urban agriculture practice has a robust and positive effect on urban households’ consumption expenditure per adult equivalent per month and asset building per capita. The average treatment effect on the treated (ATT) was 432 and 1.1; Ethiopian Birr and unit respectively for consumption expenditure per adult equivalent and assets building per capita, increase for participants as compared to non-participants, indicating that efforts to promote existing urban agriculture practice will contribute to poverty reduction among urban households. According to the findings of this study, major determinants are very important in determining households to participate in urban agriculture or not and urban agriculture has a significant positive impact on poverty reduction. Therefore, urban agriculture practice should be encouraged by Government and Non-government organizations through provision of credit, farm inputs, and extension services in order to increase its production thereby reducing poverty among urban households so that it can be taken as an alternative poverty reduction policy strategy.