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Abstract

Extreme drought condition is a serious challenge for agricultural production and threating food security in sub-Saharan country including Ethiopia. Adoption of improved crop varieties like sorghum is very important to improve household food security. However, adoption of improved sorghum in our country is very limited due to several factors. The aim of this study was to examined adoption of improved sorghum variety (melkam) and its impact on smallhol der farmers' food security in Babile district Eastern Harerghe zone, Oromia regional state, Ethiopia. A combined research approach (a mix of quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis) was employed. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select five (5) kebeles and 320 sample household heads. Primary data was collected through an interview schedule assisted survey questionnaire, focus group discussion, key informant interview and secondary data was collected through document review. Descriptive, Household calorie acquisition and econometric were applied for data analyses. The descriptive statistics revealed that age of household head, years of schooling, land size, farm income, market distance, access to extension service, access to credit service, and farmer cooperative were found to significantly differentiate adopter and non-adopter households at various levels. Moreover, the result of binary logistic regression revealed that years of schooling, farm size, annual farm income, access to credit service, access to extension service, farmer cooperative, age of households and market distance were significant factors determining improved (melkam) sorghum variety adoption in the study area. The results of propensity score matching also showed that the adoption of melkam sorghum variety had a positive and significant impact on household food security. Those who adopted improved (melkam) sorghum variety were found to have about 528.67 Kcal/Adult/Day than non-adopter households. Therefore, this result implies that improving educational level, creating a special line for credit access, enhancing farmer cooperative in the area needed government attention to enhance improved sorghum variety adoption. Furthermore, to enhance and sustain the positive impact of improved (melkam) sorghum variety adoption local leaders should work on the dissemination of improved (melkam) sorghum variety in the area.