This study analyzed the determinants of rural households’ food security in the Kallu district of the Amhara region, Northern Ethiopia. The study used primary data collected from 395 randomly selected rural households. The study employed descriptive statistics and a binary logit model to estimate the status and determinants of smallholders’ food security, respectively. Of the total sample households, 47.30% are food insecure. The binary logit model results showed that sex and education level of the household head, livestock ownership, credit access, and technology adoption have positive and significant effects on food security, while age and market distance are negatively associated with the probability to be food secure. The results suggest that improving access to marketing and financial services will contribute to improving the food security status of smallholders.

This study analyzed the determinants of food security in the case of Kurmuk district. The study used multi stages sampling techniques to draw representative households. To analyze the data descriptive statistics, Foster, Greer and Thorbeck model and binary logit model were used. The Foster, Greer and Thorbeck food insecurity index was employed to examine the extent and severity of food insecurity. It revealed that 43.6% of the sample households live below food security line with food insecurity gap and food insecurity severity index of 0.0875 and 0.0352 respectively. Among the sixteen explanatory variables that are included in the binary logit model livestock ownership excluding oxen, oxen ownership, cultivated land size, non-farm income, extension contact and household head educational status showed a significant and positive effect on food security. Whereas household sizes in adult equivalent and household head age have a negative and significant effect on food security. The empirical findings suggest that special attention should be given to improving crop and livestock market, veterinary services, health services, agricultural technologies and creation of awareness on family planning. Interventions like capacity building, agricultural research, agricultural marketing as well as infrastructures that enhance nonfarm activities in sustainable manner need to be designed to reduce food insecurity prevalence in the study area.

Background: Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) belongs to the family Leguminoseae. It is the world’s most important source of edible oil and vegetable protein. To our knowledge, little is known about the genetic variability of cultivated Ethiopian A. hypogaea at a molecular level. It is important to understand the genetic diversity of the crop to collect, conserve and use the germplasm for variety development. In the present study, ISSR markers were used to determine the genetic variability and diversity of 43 accessions of A. hypogaea collected from different regions of Ethiopia.Results: Four ISSR primers were used to generate 56 reproducible bands of which 29 (51.8%) were polymorphic. The band size ranges from 120 bp to 1100 bp. The number of amplified bands varied from 12 in primer UBC841 to 18 in primer UBC 881. The polymorphic bands percentage ranges from 27.8 % of Primer UBC 881 to 84.6 % of primer UBC 857. The polymorphic information content (PIC) value ranges from 0.29 to 0.76 with the average value 0.49. The mean Nei’s gene diversity and Shannon’s information index were 0.25 and 0.33, respectively. Genetic relationship between A. hypogaea accessions based on Jaccard’s pair wise similarity coefficients varies from 44% to 83% with an average value of 63.5%. The UPGMA dendrogram based on cluster analysis grouped A. hypogaea accessions into five distinct clusters at 63.5% similarity coefficient, and the principal coordinate analysis revealed similar grouping. Conclusions: Even though in both UPGMA and PCoA most of the accessions were grouped in separate clusters irrespective of their geographic origins, the ISSR marker-based analysis shows the presence of genetic variability among the accessions. Moreover, the current study demonstrated the potential informativeness of ISSR markers in estimating the extent of genetic variation in A. hypogaea accessions.