Abstract:
This study deals with household food security status and its determinants in Adama wereda of East shoa zone, Orormia region. The main objective of the study was to assess food security status of female headed households in the study area. In light of this, examinations of the demographic, socio economic and institutional characteristics of sampled households were undertaken. The necessary data were extracted from primary data of sampled female headed households. In this study, two stage probability proportional to size sampling procedure was employed to select 4 kebeles and 105 sample households out of 37 rural kebeles of the study areas. Descriptive statistics, T-test and chi-square tests were used to compare food secure and insecure sample groups with respect to explanatory variables. A binary logistic model was used to identify the determinants of food security of female headed households. The result of the study revealed that 38% of sampled female headed households in study area were food insecure and it was check by using recommended minimum calorie requirement (i.e., 2200 kcal) where as 62% of sampled female headed household was food secure. Accordingly, the study indicated that the mean value of the energy available for food insecure and secure households was 10,110.98 Kcal/AE/day and 10,950 Kcal/AE/day respectively. The mean energy intake of all sample households was 10,630 kcal /household/day. Similarly, the study indicated that greater proportion of food insecure female-headed households were illiterate and not access to extension services. From the total of eleven predictor variables included in the model, five were found to be statistically significant. These variables include age of household head, education status of household head, farm land size of a household, access to extension service and dependency ratio. The study suggest the following set of policy recommendation, limiting population size, and improve the production and productivity of the agriculture sector in longer term, educate people for proper use of technology like improved seed, fertilizer, intensive use of small farm land; promoting credit service organizations which enable the households to better acquire agricultural input and engage in non-farm business options to boost and ensure household food security.
