The Role of Crop Diversification to Household Food Security: The Case of Enderta Woreda, Tigray, Ethiopia
No Thumbnail Available
Files
Date
2019-06
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Reducing food and nutrition insecurity in the developing countries continues to be a major
public policy challenge. Food insecurity has become a global challenge for policy makers
particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa where the rate of population growth far exceeds the quantity
and quality of food needed to feed the population. Most of poor population in Ethiopia depends
on agriculture and especially small-scale farming systems as the primary source of their
livelihoods. Agriculture is considered as a strong option and fundamental instrument for
prompting growth and sustainable development, poverty reduction, and enhancing food security
in developing countries like Ethiopia. Crop diversification has been viewed as one of the
solutions which can help small holder farmers to diversify their production and thereby improve
food security. This study was designed to assess the role of crop diversification to food security
of smallholder farmers in Enderta woreda. Primary data was collected from 203 sample farm
households selected randomly from three kebeles of the woreda. Household survey
questionnaire, key informants interview and focus group discussion were used to collect the
primary data. Descriptive statistics such as mean, percentage, t-test were employed to analyze
the quantitative data. Ordinary least square (OLS) was used to measure the influence of crop
diversification, as measured by crop diversification index, on household food security as
measured by household dietary diversity score and household food insecurity access scale.
Censored Tobit model was used to analyze the determinants of crop diversification in the study
area. The result of the OLS model shows that crop diversification has a strong and positive
impact on household food security. The OLS result also indicated that ownership of oxen has a
positive impact on household food security whereas family size and distance to the markets
negatively influence household food security. The result of the censored Tobit models shows that
ownership of oxen, level of education of the household head and number of plots owned were the
major factors that positively determine crop diversification. The result of the censored Tobit
model indicted that distance to the market negatively influence crop diversification in the study
area. From these results, it can be concluded that food security status of farm households can be
improved through crop diversification and therefore farmers should be stimulated to more
diversify their cropping activities.