Food Security Status and Its Determinant Factors in Central Ethiopia: Empirical Evidence from Walmara District

Abstract

The study was conducted with the objective of assessing factors associated with farm households' food security status using primary data collected from 220 sample households from Walmara district, central Ethiopia. The multistage sampling technique was the sampling procedure followed to take the required sample. Descriptive and econometric data analyses were executed. The descriptive result revealed that sex of the head, access to credit services, access to extension contact, educational level of the household head, livestock holding, and land owned were positively related, while the occurrence of crop pests, age of the household head, dependency ratio, family size, market distance, and irrigation distance negatively related to household food security status. Logistic regression was the model used, and the result revealed that sex of the household head, livestock holding, land owned, access to extension contacts, access to irrigation services, and access to credit services showed a positive association, while the family size and dependency ratio negatively and significantly associated with household foods security status. Therefore, policies and strategies focusing on the provision of gender-based training, establishing irrigation facilities, promoting mixed farming of crop and livestock, and availing institutional facilities that providing financial and technical services to farm households are recommended as they contribute more in improving the food security status of farm households.