On-Farm Activities and Households Food Security in Wolaita Zone, Ethiopia

Objectives of the study were to measure status of household food security, to measure the severity levels of household food insecurity, and to analyze factors affecting on-farm activities. In the study multi-stage sampling techniques were used to select 5 kebeles and 140 sample households out of 23 kebeles of the study area. Primary data were collected through structured interview schedule, key informants interview, focus group-discussions and direct observation. Various documents were also reviewed to collect the secondary data. The quantitative data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and qualitative data were analyzed through generalization summarization and categorization. Household food security was measured using calorie consumption method. A binary logit model was used to analyze factors affecting on-farm activities. The findings of the study revealed that about 57% of the rural households were food insecure and 43% were food secure. A total of eleven explanatory variables were included in the model from which seven variables showed a significant effect on household food security. The estimated model correctly predicted 92.1% of the total sample households. To estimate the extent of food insecurity FGT index was used. Accordingly, the incidence of food insecurity, food insecurity gap and severity of food insecurity were found to be 57%, 24% and 11.67%, respectively. Keywords: Food security, on-farm activities, binary logistic regression model, incidence of food insecurity, food insecurity gap, severity of food insecurity, FGT index