Demographic Responses to Household Food Insecurity in North Wollo
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Date
1998-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
Household food insecurity is a key development problem in Ethiopia. Very few studies have
been conducted on the relationship between household food security and demographic
responses to food insecurity. A study was conducted on 1200 rural households in North Wollo
zone. These households were selected from all eight rural Weredas of the zone. Food
insecurity situations of households were analysed in terms of households' access to resources
(land, livestock and cash income).
Results of the study showed that 9 percent of the respondents were landless households during
the survey. It was also found that mean number of cattle per household is about 2 heads per
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Sources of cash income for households were found to be minimal. Migration is found to be the
most important demographic response of household food insecurity. Cyclical and seasonal
migration is used as coping mechanism of households before their food security position starts
to decline. Permanent out-migration during normal times is common to households with better
economic Slatus. Whole family out-migration is a response to acute food insecurity. The
probability of occurrence of famine induced mortality is higher in food insecure households
than food secure ones. Alortality experience of households during fa mine and normal years
showed marked difference. Mean number of children ever born to food insecure households is
lower compared to food secure households. Nuptiality is found to be weakly associated with
the food security position of households. Demographic events such as unusual migration ,
abnormal rate of deaths, delay in marriage in marriage activities, are to be continuously
supervised and should be used for early warning and intervention purposes.
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Keywords
Demographic