Abstract:
The purpose of this study was to investigate household food security situation and the determinant
factors of rural female headed households of Toke kutaye district, West Shewa Zone, Oromiya
Regional State Ethiopia. A multi-stage sampling technique was used to obtain a sample size of 185
female headed households. Cross sectional data were collected through household survey, focus
group discussion, and key informants. Household caloric acquisition was employed to measure
female headed household food security in the study area. Binary regression logistic model was
used to reveal the effect of different variables on female headed household food security.
Accordingly, the survey result shows that about 29.73% and 70.27% households were found to be
food insecure and food secure respectively. The result of binary logit model indicated that out of
sixteen explanatory variables, educational level of female household, number of Livestock
ownership, farm land size, access to credit, frequency of extension service, use of chemical
fertilizer and access to irrigation were found to be positively and significantly associated with the
food security status of the female households in the study area. The study indicated that different
coping strategies are used to reduce the effect of food insecurity. Among the major are selling
household asset, selling fire wood, selling charcoal, borrowing money from relatives, taking
additional work, reduce spending, renting farm land and reducing food frequencies, were found to
be more frequently practiced coping strategies. It is recommended that providing education,
increase extension contact, facilitating credit service and use of chemical fertilizer helps to
improve female headed household food security.
