Determinants of household dietary diversity in Yayu Biosphere Reserve, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Lack of dietary diversity is a severe problem among the poor in the developing world, including Ethiopia. Empirical evidence for factors contributing to low dietary diversity hardly exists. The objective of this study was to analyze determinants of Household Dietary Diversity and consumption behavior in Yayu biosphere reserve, South-West Ethiopia. A cross sectional survey was conducted on 183 randomly selected households. Primary data were collected from sample households through interviews, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Secondary data were collected by reviewing different documents. Descriptive statistics and econometric models were used for analyzing quantitative data. The ordered logit model was employed to determine the influence of explanatory variables on the dependent variable. The average household dietary diversity score was 5.5±1.7SD. About 17.5% of the sampled households belonged to low, 61.2% to medium and 21.3% to high dietary diversity. The age of the household head, education, income, access to irrigation, home gardening and dietary diversity awareness affected household dietary diversity positively and significantly and distance from market negatively. In conclusion, policy and development interventions should target education and awareness creation tools to provide households up to date nutritional knowledge and agricultural technologies to increase production and income, and thereby enhance household dietary diversity.

Analysis of the dietary diversity status of agricultural households in the Nkomazi Local Municipality, South Africa

“…It has been reported that households headed by persons with no formal education lack understanding of nutrition [43] and the health benefits of a well-balanced diet. As a result, they are less likely to diversify their diet as compared to farmers with formal education [9,45]. Contrary to the findings of this study, Udoh and Udoh [50] reported that more than 80% of the households in their study consumed food from these groups.…”

“…The dominance of cereals in the diets of the respondents in the present study was anticipated given that cereals, such as maize, are a common staple food throughout South Africa [43] and more so among emerging farmers [44]. Similar results were observed by Jebessa et al [45] who noted that the diet of the households in Yayu Biosphere Reserve, Ethiopia consisted mainly of cereals. While previous studies carried out in Tanzania and South Africa observed that only a few participants had consumed vegetables [9,43], over three-quarters of respondents in the present study indicated that they had consumed vegetables over the recall period.…”

“…Consistent with previous studies [59,70,71], this study also observed that household income was positively and significantly associated with HDD. This was expected because according to Jebessa et al [45] households with resources and of a higher income status can afford to diversify their diets. Several other authors also hold a similar view that the economic status of a household positively influences dietary diversity and food security [35,72,73].…”

“…This is because the more educated the head of the household is, the better their understanding of nutrition [43] and the health benefits of a well-balanced diet. As a result, they are more likely to diversify their diet as compared to farmers with less formal education or farmers who totally lack formal education [9,45]. Moreover, it has been shown that the higher the formal education status attained by members of a household, the higher the likelihood of such members gaining employment [61].…”

Trends in Irrigated Crop Production in Ethiopia During the Period of Sustainable Development Goals

“…It does so through its role in supporting more diversified production of crops including vegetables, fruits, and cash crops, compared to non-irrigating households [51]. [52] found that access to irrigation was among the most important determinants of household dietary diversity. This was supported by their finding in which dietary diversity of households with access to irrigation was higher by a factor of 5.824 than those households with no access to irrigation.…”