Factors influencing rural household food insecurity: The case of Babile district, East Hararghe Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

The paper examines the status and factors affecting food insecurity of rural household in Babile Ethiopia. A two-stage random sampling procedure was used to select 150 sample households from four kebeles. Both primary and secondary methods of data collection were used. Descriptive statistics and binary logit model were used as methods of data analysis. Binary logit model identified five out of ten variables included in the model as significant factors of rural household food insecurity. Size of cultivated land, educational status of the household head, annual farm income, use of improved variety, and insect and pest infestation problem were found significant factors influencing household food insecurity. The results of econometric analysis made it clear that these factors were the major determinants of household food insecurity in the study area.

Food Insecurity and Its Predictors among Lactating Mothers in North Shoa Zone, Central Ethiopia

“…Food insecurity was nearly four-fold more common in mothers who had no income-generating activities than in mothers who had income-generating activities. This is similar to the study conducted in Bule Hora District, Babile District, Farta District and Belo-Jinganfoy District [9,12,24,26]. This is because mothers who have no income-generating activities (off-farm sources) cannot challenge food insecurity unless they have an additional source of food in the absence of food in the household.…”

“…Farta District (70.7%) [9], Babile District (57%) [24], Benshangul Gumuz Region (72%) [26], Shashemene (55.7%) [25] and Bule Hora District (77%) [12].These inconsistencies could be due to the difference in some sociodemographic characteristics of the study participants. Since this study was done in the postharvest season and the other studies have a preharvest season, seasonal variation may be another important factor for the perceived difference.…”

“…This is in line with the study conducted previously in the rural area of Ethiopia (Farta District and Babile District) and South Africa in a community-based setting. [9,21,24]. This is because mothers who have no formal education may not have good knowledge to understand how to grow, improve, manage, and produce enough types of farms to sustain the food security status of their households and themselves.…”

“…In summary, the prevalence of food insecurity ranges from 17% to 83% in global countries conducted from 2012 to 2018 [11,[15][16][17][18][19], from 31.3% to 91.0% in other African countries conducted from 2013 to 2017 [10,[20][21][22] and from 6.8% to 77% in Ethiopia conducted from 2013 to 2016 [9,[23][24][25][26][27].…”

“…The major causes of food insecurity of mothers emerged from different sources such as lack of formal education, rural residence, poor occupational status, large family size, increased number of under-five children, absence of income-generating activities, poor dietary diversity practice and low frequency of meals per day [9,12,13,24,25]. Notwithstanding that, the effect of home gardening practices and alcohol use by their husbands on the food insecurity of mothers has not been well addressed by previous studies.…”