FOOD SECURITY STATUS AND ITS DETERMINANTS AMONG RURAL HOUSEHOLDS IN ODA BULTUM DISTRICT, WEST HARARGHE ZONE, OROMIA NATIONAL REGIONAL STATE

Abstract

Food security is one of the critical concerns and top priority of policy agenda for developing countries. Having clear picture on food security status and its determinants helps policy makers to devise appropriate policies that enhance food security. Hence, this study aims to determine the food security status of the households, status, gap and severity of food insecurity among rural households and its determinants in Oda Bultum district of West Hararghe zone, Oromia National Regional State. The data for this study were collected from primary and secondary sources. Primary data were collected from randomly selected 365 sample households by using multistage sampling procedure and secondary data were obtained from various sources. The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Foster-Greer-Thorbecke (FGT) and probit model. The survey results indicated that 38.9% sampled households were food secured whilst 61.1% were food insecure. Further analysis of Probit regression revealed that; sex of household head, educational level, household size, donkey ownership, cash crop production, off/non-farm income, income, access to irrigation and frequency of extension contact significantly increased probability of being food secure. This study recommends that rural households should be encouraged to increase off/non-farm income, work on household size by creating awareness, increasing frequency of extension contact, increasing cash crop productivity, increasing access to irrigation, increasing income, donkey possession and improvement of the educational level for the household heads in order to enhance households’ food security status in the study area.