Abstract:
An understanding of the major determinants of food security is important for interventions
aiming at minimizing food insecurity. Therefore, this study was carried out in Meta district of
East Hararghe Zone, the objectives of this study were to assess status of household food security,
to analyze the determinants of food security status among the rural households and to identify
the mechanisms employed by the households to cope with food shortage. In order to achieve
these objectives, data on demographic and socio-economic characteristics and institutional
aspects were collected from 149 households drawn from 3 randomly selected sample kebeles
through interview schedule, key informant interviews and focus group discussion. Descriptive
statistics, inferential statistics and Logit model were used as methods of data analysis. The
survey results indicate that 53.02% of the respondents were food secure, while 46.98% were food
insecure. Results also indicate that there was a significant mean difference at different level of
significance between the food secure and food insecure households in terms of age of household
head, sex of household head, family size, dependency ratio, educational levels of household
head, size of cultivated land, livestock ownership excluding oxen own, off/non-farm income, cash
crop produces, fertilizer user, contact with development agents, improve seeds user, distance to
the nearest market and access to credit. Among 16 explanatory variables included in the logit
model, 8 of them were found to be significant at different probability level, including sex of
household head, size of cultivated land and livestock ownership excluding oxen were positive
effect on food security whereas, age of household head, family size, dependent ratio, access to
x
the nearest market and access to credit had negative effect on food security. Reducing numbers
and quantity of meals, sales of livestock, purchase food on cash, borrowing grain/ cash from
others and eating less preferred food were some of frequently practiced coping mechanisms in
study area. Generally, the study recommends that proactive policy which facilities the family
planning techniques, expansion of infrastructure services, as well as awareness creation on
better utilization of credit with expansion of credit access should be integrated as food security
efforts.
