Rural Livelihood Strategies and Food Security: The Case of Bensa Woreda, Sidama National Regional State, Ethiopia

Livelihood diversification by rural households is expected to contribute significantly to household living standard and food security. Nevertheless, a livelihood strategy plays a crucial role for household income and food security, and still empirically its contribution is unidentified in Bensa woreda. The study addressed three objectives: these are assessing livelihood strategies pursued by rural households based on their wealth status in achieving food security, determining the status of food security as an outcome of different livelihood strategies pursued by rural households and identifying the determinants of rural households` choice of livelihood strategies. A multistage sampling technique was employed to select 190 household heads. The data were collected through a semi-structured questionnaire, key informant interviews and focus group discussions. To achieve the first and second objectives, descriptive statistics such as percentage, mean, chi-square, t and F-tests were used to analyze the socio-economic characteristics of households by wealth status, livelihood diversification strategies, and food security status. The third objective was achieved by using a multinomial regression model (MNL) using data collected through a semi-structured questionnaire involving 190 respondents. The study found that 12.6% of better of (rich) households had diversify their livelihoods by combining from all sources (on-farm+ off farm+ non-farm), 16.2, 13.8 % and 7.5 % of medium farmers diversify their livelihoods mainly from on-farm, combining on-farm and off farm, and from combining on-farm and non-farm, respectively. The result briefly indicates that, more proportion 32.20 % of food secure households was attaining their food from combining on-farm, off farm and non-farm. The study found that 62.11 % and 37.89 % of households were food secure and food insecure respectively in the study area. Furthermore, the result indicated that the mean Kcal of food secure and insecure households is 1210.75, and 4266.241AE. Based on diet quantity analysis, the mean household calorie consumption was 2655.49kcal per AE. The MNL model of marginal effect reveals that age, access to education, land size, livestock holding, extension contact, credit, distance from market, target for Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) and dependency ratio of household were significantly affecting choice the of livelihood strategies. The study, therefore recommends that investing in natural assets such as farm land and livestock ownership by networking valuable extension contact and market access, needs consideration in promoting rural livelihood diversification. Local government should intervene help educate and train rural households by supporting credit access for profitable diversification to off farm, and non-farm besides on farm to sustain their livelihood and ensure food security. Keywords:Livelihood/on farm, off farm, non-farm/: Food security, Multinomial logit models DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/12-22-01 Publication date: November 30th 202