Determinants of Food Insecurity in Rural Households in Tehuludere Woreda, South Wello Zone of the Amhara Region
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Date
2007-08
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Addis Abeba university
Abstract
The main objective of the study was to identify some of the factors that influence
household food insecurity in Tehuludere Woreda, South Wello Zone. A stratified random
sampling method was employed to select the final sampling units. The study period was
from November 2005 to November 2006. A household food balance food model was
adopted and the recommended daily calorie requirement was used to determine the
household food security status. Household food insecurity causation was then examined
using logistic regression model.
The descriptive analysis of the study revealed that only 30.8% of the sample households
were food secured. The food insecure households (69.2%) felt short of the recommended
calorie requirement by 37% while food secure households exceeded the recommended
calorie requirement by 44%. Using the forward step wise (likelihood ratio) method, seven
out of ten predictor variables were selected as major determinants of household food
insecurity. These predictor variables had significant joint and separate influence in
explaining the variation in the outcome variable. Model diagnostic tests of the
multivariate logistic regression model show the adequacy of the fitted model. The study
revealed that non-participation in off-farm activities, having large family size (larger
than the sample mean), low annual production or yield (less than the sample mean
annual yield), small farm size (smaller than the sample mean farm size), dependency
attitude on food aid, poor wealth status (less than the sample mean Tropical Livestock
Unit) and insecure land tenure perception as positive and significant factors that
contributed to high food insecurity.
Analysis of the marginal effects of significant discrete predictor variables showed that,
holding other variables constant, a shift to participation in off-farm activities decreases
the probability of household food insecurity by 66%. Holding other variables constant, a
shift to smaller family size (smaller than the sample mean family size) decreases the
probability of food insecurity by 63%. A shift to high yield (larger than the sample mean)
and large farm size (larger than the mean farm land size) decreases the probability of
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household food insecurity by 39% and 42%, respectively. Holding other variables
constant, a shift from dependency attitude to self-reliance decreases the probability of
food insecurity by 25%. A shift to good wealth status (larger than the sample mean TLU)
and an improvement in land tenure security decreases the probability of household food
insecurity by 38% and 31%, respectively. A simulation study conducted using food
insecure households as a reference group indicated that improvement in seven predictor
variables have the potential to increase the number of food secured households in
Tehuludere Woreda.
The Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.628 indicated that the data has a good internal
consistency reliability
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Keywords
Households in Tehuludere Woreda