Impacts Of Farmland Conversion To Industrial Park On Farm Households’ Food Security: The Case Of Adama City, Oromia, Ethiopia

Abstract

The study was undertaken examines the impacts of impact of farmland conversion to industrial park on farm households Food Security in Adama District, Oromia, Ethiopia in two selected Kebeles of Boku shanen and Dhaka Adi. Two stage sampling technique was employed, selecting a sample of 326 households from two distinct categories. The study utilized descriptive, inferential and propensity score matching technique during the study. Data was collected through questionnaires to gather cross-sectional information, supplemented by qualitative insights from Key Informant Interviews. The result of descriptive statistics shows that 68.66 percent of Farm Households not exposed to farmland conversion food secure in terms of varied dietary consumption. Whereas, Farm Households exposure to Farmland Conversion consume a variety of foods accounted for 31.34 percent of the total, it signifies that food security status based on the quality and variety of food consumed by households not exposed to farmland conversion was much better than that of exposed to farmland conversion. Causal treatment effects using kernel matching Estimate indicate that farmland conversion to industrial park is found to be statistically significant impact on farm households’ food security. The odds of household food securities are predicted to decrease by 0.54 percent for household exposed to farmland conversion to industrial park when compared to household with not exposure to farmland conversion. Also, the study revealed that Crop Sharing, labor sale: work for the others farmers and investment sites, Livestock Sales, migration for work to other area and others were the major coping strategies adopted to against food insecurity. To address the problem with food insecurity results from Farmland conversion, administrations body need to give skill training and make small size farmland more productive to secure their food security. Additionally, the study emphasizes the necessity of implementing intervention measures that mitigate negative impacts of farm land loss on farm household’s food security.