Identification and Intensity of Food Insecurity and Coping Strategies of Rural Households: The Case of Gombora and Misha District, Hadiya Zone, Southern Ethiopia

A clear identification and understanding intensity of food insecurity and coping strategies of rural households helps policy makers and planners formulate new policies that enhance food security. Therefore, this study was conducted to identify major causes of food insecurity and coping strategies of rural households. In order to achieve these objectives biophysical; demographic and socio-economic data were collected from 150 randomly selected households in Gombora and Misha district, hadiya zone, southern Ethiopia.In addition, secondary data were collected from relevant organizations and pertinent documents. Descriptive statistics such as mean, standard deviation and percentages were used for analyzing the data. Moreover, t-test and - test were employed to describe characteristics of food secure and food insecure groups. The survey result shows that about 72% of sample farmers were food insecure A logistic regression model was fitted to analyze the potential variables affecting household food insecurity in the study area. Among 14 explanatory variables included in the logistic model, 9 of them were significant at less than 10% probability level. These were family size, number of oxen owned, use of chemical fertilizer, size of cultivated land, farm credit use, total annual income per adult equivalent, food consumption expenditure, livestock owned, and off-farm income per adult equivalent. The estimated model correctly predicted 92% of the sample cases, 81% food secure and 96% food insecure. Keywords: food insecurity, coping strategies, logistic regression, Ethiopia. DOI: 10.7176/JESD/11-15-03 Publication date:August 31st 202