Abstract:
The study was conducted to identify impacts of social capital on food security among rural households in Adea Berga district of West Shoa zone of Oromia. Hence, food insecurity is a key problem and challenges in the study district; 34% of the sampled households of the district were food insecure. To identify the problem, primary sources and primary methods of data collection through survey questionnaire was carried out. Both descriptive and econometrics analysis were employed to meet the objectives of the study. After endogeneity problems among different factors are detected, binary logistic regression was run to identify determinants of food security status. The results revealed that education of the household head, trust, livestock holding, access to information and total land cultivated were strongly and positively related to household food security; while sex of the household head had a negative influence on household food security. In addition, propensity score matching model was applied to estimate the impact of social capital on household food security in the study area. The results of the PSM revealed that educational status of the household head, age of the household head, total land cultivated, livestock holding, sex of the household head and trust were significantly influencing household food security status. Accordingly, the study recommends that expansion and intensification combination of interventions aim at enhancing income diversification opportunity in rural areas such as non-farm activities, promoting education, and modernizing livestock productivity, provision of awareness formation on better and creative operation of such possessions as information should also be emphasized in rural areas of the district
