Determinants of Food Insecurity in Rural Households in Tehuludere Woreda, South Wello Zone of the Amhara Region

Shumiye, Alem (2007) Determinants of Food Insecurity in Rural Households in Tehuludere Woreda, South Wello Zone of the Amhara Region. Masters thesis, Addis Ababa University.

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Abstract

The main objective of the study was to identify some of the factors that influence household food insecurity in Tehuludere Woreda, South Wello Zone. A stratified random sampling method was employed to select the final sampling units. The study period was from November 2005 to November 2006. A household food balance food model was adopted and the recommended daily calorie requirement was used to determine the household food security status. Household food insecurity causation was then examined using logistic regression model. The descriptive analysis of the study revealed that only 30.8% of the sample households were food secured. The food insecure households (69.2%) felt short of the recommended calorie requirement by 37% while food secure households exceeded the recommended calorie requirement by 44%. Using the forward step wise (likelihood ratio) method, seven out of ten predictor variables were selected as major determinants of household food insecurity. These predictor variables had significant joint and separate influence in explaining the variation in the outcome variable. Model diagnostic tests of the multivariate logistic regression model show the adequacy of the fitted model. The study revealed that non-participation in off-farm activities, having large family size (larger than the sample mean), low annual production or yield (less than the sample mean annual yield), small farm size (smaller than the sample mean farm size), dependency attitude on food aid, poor wealth status (less than the sample mean Tropical Livestock Unit) and insecure land tenure perception as positive and significant factors that contributed to high food insecurity. Analysis of the marginal effects of significant discrete predictor variables showed that, holding other variables constant, a shift to participation in off-farm activities decreases the probability of household food insecurity by 66%. Holding other variables constant, a shift to smaller family size (smaller than the sample mean family size) decreases the probability of food insecurity by 63%. A shift to high yield (larger than the sample mean) and large farm size (larger than the mean farm land size) decreases the probability of household food insecurity by 39% and 42%, respectively. Holding other variables constant, a shift from dependency attitude to self-reliance decreases the probability of food insecurity by 25%. A shift to good wealth status (larger than the sample mean TLU) and an improvement in land tenure security decreases the probability of household food insecurity by 38% and 31%, respectively. A simulation study conducted using food insecure households as a reference group indicated that improvement in seven predictor variables have the potential to increase the number of food secured households in Tehuludere Woreda. The Cronbach’s alpha value of 0.628 indicated that the data has a good internal consistency reliability.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Subjects: H Social Sciences > HA Statistics
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
H Social Sciences > HN Social history and conditions. Social problems. Social reform
Divisions: Africana
Depositing User: Selom Ghislain
Date Deposited: 26 Jun 2018 07:54
Last Modified: 26 Jun 2018 07:54
URI: http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/4585

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