Gender and education as predictors of food insecurity among coffee farming households of the Jimma zone, Southwest of Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Adequate quantity and quality of food are required for optimal health, growth and development of human life. Thus, availability of food has been a major concern in every community at all time and context. Access to food can be worse in a cash crop setting where products are meant for parties other than the farming household itself. Meanwhile, the Ethiopian coffee sub-sector represents the livelihood of eight million farming households, generating a quarter of the foreign exchange earnings of the country. However, the net impact of such an agricultural system on the availability and access of food remains unknown to date. Thus, we used empirical data to assess a household’s food insecurity and identify context specific determinants in the setting. METHODS: The study was conducted in three randomly selected coffee producing sub-districts of the Jimma Zone, an area which is believed to be the birth place of coffee. A total of 749 coffee farming households were included in the study. Food insecurity was measured using a household food insecurity access scale, while determinants were assessed using a structured questionnaire. Data were entered into EpiData and the analysis was performed using SPSS version 21. RESULTS: The study findings showed a high prevalence of food insecurity (n = 517; 68.8%). In multivariable logistic regression, households with a formally educated head were found to be 39% less likely to face food insecurity as compared to those who had no formal education [OR = 0.61 (0.38, 0.99)]. Similarly, households with an educated spouse were 36% less likely to have food insecurity [OR = 0.64 (0.42, 0.97)]. Those households in which the husband was responsible for purchasing food were more than twice as likely to be food insecure than those in which the wife was responsible food purchasing [OR = 2.4 (1.58, 3.33)]. Similarly, households which utilized saving and credit service were 59% less likely to have food insecurity than those did not utilise such a service [OR = 0.41 (0.31-0.58)]. CONCLUSION: There exists a high prevalence of food insecurity among the studied households. Food security interventions in the setting should focus on gender, education and financial services rather than the classic income dominated approach as it fails to predict the existing prevalent food insecurity