Abstract:
The design and implementation of effective measures to reduce pastoral household food
insecurity in the study area depends on an in-depth understanding of the dimensions,
covariates and magnitude of food insecurity. Therefore, this study was carried out with the
objectives of measuring the magnitude and determinants of pastoral households’ food
insecurity in Degahbour district of Somali Regional State. To achieve these objectives, crosssectional
data on demographic, socio-economic and institutional characteristics were
collected from 123 households drawn randomly from four kebeles. Quantitative data was
collected through structured interview schedule and qualitative data was collected through
focus group discussions were used to generate data. The main tools of data analysis for this
study include Foster-Greerer-Thorbek, descriptive statistics, and binary logit regression
model. The head count ratio computed by Foster-Greerer-Thorbek model revealed that
66.67% of sample households were food insecure while the food insecurity gap and severity
were 21% and 10%, respectively. Logit model results showed that livestock holding, income
from livestock sources, non-livestock income and social support significantly and negatively
affected food insecurity while family size, dependency ratio, age, sex and livestock diseases
incidence had a positive and significant effect on food insecurity. Finally, based on the
findings of the study, some of the key recommendations to tackle pastoral households’ food
insecurity in the study area include, family planning, effective targeting of households with
older and female heads improving the production and productivity and marketing conditions
of livestock, provision of veterinary services to prevent the livestock diseases, improved
utilization of resources and promoting traditional social networks for sharing resources
