Determinants Of Urban Agricultural Participation Decision And Its Impact On Household Food Security: The Case Of Holeta Town, West Shoa Zone

Abstract

The study was conducted to identify determinants of urban agricultural participation decision and its impact on urban household food security the case of Holeta town. Based on the finding of the study and urban agricultural practices is unevenly distributed among the study households. Both probability and nonprobability sampling methods were employed. To achieve the objectives of the study primary data was collected using questionnaire through survey schedule. Both descriptive and econometrics analysis were employed. Descriptive statistics was used to identity urban agriculture participation status of the sampled households while binary Logistic regression was employed to identify determinants of urban agriculture practices. Furthermore, propensity score matching was used to estimate the impacts of urban agriculture on household food security. The results of the descriptive statistics revealed that from the total sampled households, most of them were nonparticipants on urban agriculture. Furthermore, the descriptive analysis result showed that the mean difference between the two groups regarding the sex of household head implying female headed household less participated in to urban agriculture compared to male headed households. In addition, the results of binary logistic regression indicates that family size, gender being male, access to credit and access to extension contact affects the participation in urban agriculture positively whereas education of the household and oxen ownership status determine the participation decision of the household negatively. The results of PSM model found that urban agricultural participation brought a significant positive impact on household’s food security showing a significant difference between participant and non-participant households. Hence, the importance of urban agriculture in ensuring food security is of immense benefit to the participant households, Holeta town administration should have to encourage the expansion of urban agriculture in Holeta town to ensure households food security