Impact of level of Enset (Ensete ventricosum, Musaceae) Production on Food and Nutrition Security: Empirical Evidences from Wolaita and Kembata Tambaro Zones of Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Enset is the only crop that can define food and nutrition security literally. Enset crop is closely related to food availability, access, use, stability, and nutrient balancing of densely populated communities in Wolaita and Kembata Tembaro zones. The climate smart, adaptive, productive, economical, and socially important Enset crop is the optimal way for ensuring food and nutrition security of communities. Hence, this study aims to estimate the causal effect of the level of Enset Production on farmers’ food and nutritional security in Southern Ethiopia. The survey applied structured and semi structured questionnaires for the collection of cross-sectional data from 374 sampled households in Wolaita and Kembata Tambaro Zones. Generalized Propensity Score (GPS) with multilevel treatment option was applied to deal with the impact evaluation of Production on food and nutrition security. Food and nutrition status of farming communities defined by calorie intake of households. The proxy measure of the level of Enset production was the number of Enset harvested across households in the last twelve months. The GPS method applied followed three estimation procedures such as modelling the conditional distribution of the treatment given the covariates, estimating the conditional expectation of the outcome given the treatment and GPS, and defining the dose response function. The results show that the small holder farmers that actively involved in harvesting Enset for food are significantly associated with increased level of daily energy intake. The implication of the study revealed that through the promotion level of Enset production, it is possible to have increased and balanced the energy intake of households in Southern Ethiopia. The empirical evidences illustrate that higher level of Enset harvesting is an optimal way for sustainable and better level of food and nutritious security for farming communities in southern Ethiopia.