Vol. 10(12), pp.

404-412, December 2018

DOI: 10.5897/JDAE2018.0999
Article Number: 5C3ACD759442
ISSN: 2006-9774
Copyright ©2018 Journal of Development and Agricultural
Author(s) retain the copyright of this article
[Link] Economics

Full Length Research Paper

Determinants of food insecurity among rural

households of South Western Ethiopia
Mebratu Negera Feyisa
Department of Economics, School of Business and Economics, Ambo University, Woliso Campus, Woliso, Ethiopia.
Received 2 October, 2018; Accepted 21 November, 2018

This study seeks to determine households’ determinants of food insecurity among rural households in
Woliso district, South Western Ethiopia. The main objective of this study is to identify factors
influencing food insecurity in the study area. The study used household-level survey data collected
from 122 sample households in Woliso district, and systematic random sampling technique was
employed to select the sample households. Calorie acquisition by households was used to categorize
the sample households into food secure and food insecure. Accordingly, results of descriptive analysis
show that about 25.4 % and 74.6 % of the sample households were found to be food insecure and food
secure, respectively. Comparison of percentage of food insecurity was also conducted between two-
groups for some discrete variables, and results revealed that food insecurity significantly varies
between the two groups. Results of the logit model showed that household’s education level,
dependency ratio, amount of amount of land and amount of fertilize have significantly influenced the
level of food insecurity in the study area. Policy interventions aimed to change food security situation
in the study area need to be diversified by focusing on enhancing family planning programs, promoting
access to basic education to rural households and efficient functioning of land markets.

Key words: Food insecurity, calorie acquisition, logit model, Woliso district.

INTRODUCTION

Food security is one of the major world agenda in 2018 in million children and women in Ethiopia were acutely
several contexts. Worldwide, in 2017 about 124 million malnourished in 2017 (IFRC, 2018).
people in 51 countries faced food security crisis (FSIN, The main causes of food insecurity in Ethiopia are
2018). According to FSIN (2018), conflict and insecurity prolonged drought, conflict and insecurity, crop disease,
are the major drivers of food insecurity in eighteen etc. According to FAO (2018), in Ethiopia, prolonged
countries, and the number of food-insecure people across drought conditions are severely affecting the livelihoods
the world has been increasing over time. Likewise, food in most southern and southeastern pastoral and agro-
security situation in Ethiopia deteriorated sharply in 2017. pastoral areas of SNNPR, southern Oromia and
In Ethiopia, the number of food-insecure population was southeastern Somali Regions, where cumulative seasonal
increased from 5.6 million in December 2016 to 8.5 rainfall was up to 60 percent below average. In these
million in August 2017 (ACAPS, 2018). An estimated 3.6 areas, pasture and water availability have declined to

E-mail: moneibsa2014@[Link].

Author(s) agree that this article remain permanently open access under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution
License 4.0 International License
 Feyisa et al. 405

extremely low levels, severely affecting crop production differing views and approaches to the problem. FAO
and livestock conditions, leading to large scale animal defined food insecurity as “a situation that exists when
deaths. More than one million people are displaced in people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of safe
Ethiopia, most of whom have been displaced by conflict and nutritious food for normal growth and development
starting in September 2017 and many of whom are and an active and healthy life” (FAO, 2008; Marion,
displaced along the Oromia-Somali regional border 2011).According to this definition, factors that may lead to
(FEWS, NET and WFP, 2018). In the near-time, this a situation of food insecurity include non-availability of
displacement has disrupted households’ ability to engage food lack of access, improper utilization and instability
in their typical livelihoods activities, such as seasonal over a certain time period. In other words, food
cultivation and raising of livestock, and has resulted in availability, access, stability and utilization form the four
food security crisis in the region where conflict has been pillars of food security. The four pillars must be fulfilled
reported to be most severe. Another factor driving the simultaneously in order to realize food security
food security crisis in Ethiopia is the fall armyworm objectives. Determinants of each pillar are as shown in
outbreak, which affects large parts of the country; Figure 1.
especially maize-producing parts of SNNPR, Western Based on duration, food security analysts have
Oromia, Amhara, Gambela, and Benshangul Gumuz identified two types of food insecurity, which are chronic
(ACAPS, 2018; FEWS, NET and WFP, 2018). According and transitory (FAO, 2008). Chronic food insecurity is
to ACAPS (2018), food security situation in Ethiopia long-term or persistent, and occurs when people are
remain acute in 2018 with the reduced output of 2017 unable to meet their minimum food requirements over a
harvests, decreased food access as a result of poor sustained period of time. Contrarily, transitory food
purchasing power, and the exhaustion of coping insecurity is short-term and temporary, and occurs when
mechanisms. there is a sudden drop in the ability to produce or access
The problem of food insecurity greatly varies among enough food to maintain a good nutritional status. While
households residing in the same country. In Ethiopia, chronic food insecurity results from extended periods of
some households frequently face the problem of food poverty, lack of assets and inadequate access to
insecurity, even in areas where there are no productive or financial resources, transitory food insecurity
aforementioned drivers of food insecurity. Although a is caused by short-term shocks and fluctuations in food
number of efforts have been done to achieve food availability and food access, including year-to-year
security at the household level in the rural areas of variations in domestic food production, food prices and
Ethiopia, it has remained as a challenging goal even household incomes. There is also a concept of seasonal
today. In Ethiopia, the poor performance of food security food insecurity which falls between chronic and transitory
at household level is associated with poor institutional food insecurity (FAO, 2008). It occurs when there is a
forms and dependency on rain-fed agriculture, which is cyclical pattern of inadequate availability and access to
highly vulnerable to drought which leads to loss of rural food. This is associated with seasonal fluctuations in the
household’s lives and livelihoods in every three years climate, cropping patterns, work opportunities and
(Abduselam, 2017). disease.
Most of previous studies have focused on wider level. For Household food insecurity in Ethiopia has been studied
instance, study conducted by Lemesa et al. (2017) by many researchers, who came up with different
reviewed literature to seek an answer for the question findings. Endalew et al. (2015) reviewed food security
“why does food insecurity persist in Ethiopia?” They situation in Ethiopia and causes of food insecurity, and
found that macro-economic challenges like increasing found that about 10% of Ethiopia’s citizens are
food prices and unemployment determine the prospect of chronically food insecure and this figure rises to more
food security in the country. Therefore, according to than 15% during frequent drought years. According to
them, there is an urgent need to transform access to them, the deteriorating food security situation in Ethiopia
agricultural technology by farmers and employment is caused by multifactor, which include population
opportunity. However, interrelated causes of household pressure, drought, shortage of farmland, lack of oxen,
food insecurity require an analysis at a household level. deterioration of food production capacity, outbreak of
Therefore, this study aims to examine determinants of plant and animal disease, poor soil fertility, frost attack,
food insecurity among rural households of South Western shortage of cash income, poor farming technologies,
Ethiopia by taking sample households from Woliso weak extension services, high labor wastage, poor social
district. and infrastructure facility and pre-and post-harvest crop
loss. To address food security issue in Ethiopia, they
suggested that household heads and members of the
REVIEW OF LITERATURE households should engage in different income generating
activities for means of living and coping mechanism. In
Food insecurity is an evolving concept. There are many addition, the government should incorporate different
definitions of food insecurity, which is a clear indication of research outputs to design programs that can tack food
406 J. Dev. Agric. Econ.

Food availability Access to food

 Domestic production  Purchasing power
 Import capacity  Income of population
 Food stocks  Transport and market
 Food aid infrastructure
Stability of supply and access Food utilization
 Weather variability  Food safety
 Price fluctuations  Hygiene and
 Political factors manufacturing practices
 Economic factors  Diet quality and diversity

Figure 1. Determinants of each pillar.

Source: FAO (2008) and Marion (2011).

insecurity. Using empirical analysis, Beyene and Muche In general, the reviews of empirical studies of
(2010) examined determinants of household food security household food security/insecurity in Ethiopia show the
among rural households in the Ada Berga district in existence of difference in findings, which are associated
Central Ethiopia. Household calorie acquisition was with difference in study areas. Therefore, their findings
analyzed to measure the status of household food may not apply in different contexts. Moreover, most of
security. They estimated the logit model to identify previous empirical studies done on the problem were
variables which can significantly influence household stick to similar methods. This study is an attempt to fill the
food security in the study area. Accordingly, they found aforementioned gaps using different methods, focusing
that variables like experience in farming activities, off- on determinants of food insecurity among rural
farm and non-farm incomes, land and livestock holdings, households of Woliso district, South Western Ethiopia.
as well as soil and water conservation practices
significantly influence household food security. Besides,
MATERIALS AND METHODS
difference in fertilizer use has a positive impact on food
security, in which food security was improved as the Data collection
intensity of fertilizer use increases. Result of the study
further indicated that development interventions aiming at This study depended mainly on primary data, which was collected
income diversification, improved fertilizer supply; from sample farm households using questionnaire. The
questionnaire was administered to heads of farm households
increasing land and livestock productivity will enormously through interviews by trained enumerators. In the absence of the
contribute to the attainment of food security in the study head of the household, other members of the household such as
area. The study conducted on food insecurity in rural grown up child who can provide the required information was
areas of Eastern Ethiopia also indicated that socio- interviewed. For the interview, trained enumerators were deployed,
economic factors can influence food insecurity (Bogale and continuous supervision was made by the researcher to correct
and Shimelis, 2009). According to Bogale and Shimelis possible errors in the interview. The primary data needed for the
study mainly focused on households’ demographic and socio-
(2009), socio-economic variables like family size, annual economic characteristics, their food consumption and expenditure,
income, amount of credit received, access to irrigation, asset ownership and crop production, technology adoption and
age of household head, farm size, and livestock owned access to different services, and households’ perception toward
have significant influence on food insecurity in rural areas food insecurity. It is known that households do not keep records of
of Dire Dawa, Eastern Ethiopia. Their findings implied data on different aspects. So, the household survey entirely
depended on recall method.
that improvement in food security situation in the study
The target population of this study is farm households living in
area requires building household assets, improving the Woliso district, South Western Ethiopia. There are 22, 888 farm
functioning of rural financial markets and promoting households in Woliso district (SWSZANRO, 2018). The study used
family planning. a simplified formula provided by Yamane (1967) to determine the
 Feyisa et al. 407

sample size at 95% confidence level and 5% degree of variability

As ranges from to , ranges between
(Israel, 2002). In addition, 5% level of precision is used in order to
get the sample size which represents a true population. According 0 and 1.
to Hussey and Hussey (1997), no survey can ever be believed to If is the probability that household is food
be free from error or provide 100% surety and error limits of less
insecure, then the probability that the household is food secure,
than 10% and confidence levels of higher than 90% can be
regarded as acceptable. The sample size determination formula , can be expressed as:
provided by Yamane (1967) is as follows (Israel, 2002).

where is the sample size, is the total number of farm Thus,

households in Woliso district, which is 22,888. is the level of

precision or sampling error, which assumed to be 9% for this study. The expression represents the odds ratios in favor

of food insecurity. It means the ratio of the probability that a

household will be food insecure to the probability that he/she will be
food secure.
By taking the natural log of odds ratio, we obtain the following
Therefore, this study randomly selected 122 farm households from
result known as logit model:
the target population, and systematic random sampling based on a
given interval between houses was employed during household
selection.

Data analysis

The data analysis was started with the conversion of monthly, , the log of the odds ratio, is called logit.
weekly and daily consumption data into kilocalorie (kcal) in order to Based on empirical literatures reviewed, six explanatory variables
realize objective of the study. The converted data was further were identified, and the final logit model was specified as follows:
changed into household adult equivalent (AE). Following this, the
amount of energy in kcal for sampled households was recorded.
Next, kcal of each sample household was compared with the
minimum subsistence requirement per AE per day. The government
of Ethiopia has set the minimum subsistence food requirement per
AE per day at 2200 kcal (MoFED, 2010/2011). Households which
consume below this minimum requirement were grouped as food where represents sex of household head, is
insecure whereas those which consume above the threshold were education level of household head, is dependency ratio,
grouped as food secure. Thus, the response variable (food
insecurity status) is a dichotomous, which takes a value of y = 0 if a is access to market, is pesticide use, is amount of
household is food secure and the value y = 1 if the household is
food insecure. Here, we are interested in estimating the probability fertilizer, is amount of land and represents
that a household is food insecure, given the explanatory variables. livestock ownership.
This probability can be expressed by logistic distribution function as After specification of the logit model, diagnostic tests were
(Gujarati, 2004): conducted to detect the problem of hetroscedasticity and
multicollinearity. Moreover, to assist the regression analysis, two-
group percentage of food insecurity-comparison test was done for
discrete variables with two categories, such as sex, land owning,
fertilizer usage, improved seed usage, pesticide usage, herbicide
usage, road access, market access, credit access and ceremonial
practice.
where is the probability that household is food
insecure, given the explanatory variables, is the logistic
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
cumulative distribution function, is the column vector of
explanatory variables and is the row vector of slope of Descriptive analysis
coefficients to be estimated.
For examining the food security status of sample
If , the aforementioned function can be re-
households, calorie acquisition by households is taken as
expressed as: an indicator. The amount of energy attained by a
household is compared with the minimum subsistence
requirement per AE per day (that is, 2200 kcal).
Accordingly, the result shows that 25.4% (31) and 74.6%
408 J. Dev. Agric. Econ.

Table 1. Food security status and calorie intake of sampled household.

Total (N=122) Food insecure (N1=31) Food secure (N2=91)

Variable Mean difference t-value
Max Min Mean Max Min Mean Max Min Mean
Calorie intake 14,785 1,500 3,160 1,500 2,199 2,027 14,785 2,250 3,541 1,514 2.999***
*P<0.1, **P<0.05, ***P<0.01.
Source: Sample Household Survey (2018).

(91) of the sampled households were found to be food food security through enabling direct access to livestock
insecure and food secure, respectively. products, providing cash income from sale of livestock
Table 1 shows that the mean energy intake of food and livestock products for purchasing food, and
insecure households is 2,027, whereas that of food contributing to increased crop yields as result of improved
secure household is 3,541. The mean comparison test productivity from the use of manure and traction. The
(t=2.9992***) confirms that there is significant difference result of the present study shows this fact; livestock
between food insecure and food secure households with ownership patterns play significant role in determining
respect to calorie intake. Socio-economic characteristics household food security. Table 2 shows that households
of farm households are important determinants of their without livestock are more food insecure than those with
food security or insecurity status (Babatunde et al., livestock. This result is consistent with the result of study
2007). done by Ali and Khan (2013). Ali and Khan (2013) found
Table 2 compares the percentage of food insecure that livestock ownership has a positive impact on rural
households between two categories of discrete variable household food security in Pakistan.
under consideration. This comparative analysis helps us Modern agricultural technologies, such as fertilizer,
to identify which category is more vulnerable to food improved seed, pesticide and herbicide, as shown in
insecurity in the study area. Table 2 shows that of female Table 2, result in difference in food security between
headed households 57% are food insecure, whereas only those who use them and who do not use them.
18% are food insecure for male headed households and Households who use each of these farming inputs is
the difference (39%) is significant at 1% level of more food secure than those who do not use them.
significance. This implies female headed households are According to Popp et al. (2013) and Kughur (2012), the
more vulnerable to food insecurity as compared male use of pesticide and herbicide provides economic
headed households. This difference is associated with benefits to the farmers through protection of crop quality
customary rules and practices that often have restrictive and yield; especially it can prevent large crop losses, thus
effects for women through limiting their access to increasing agricultural output and farm income.
resources and their roles in food production, preparation, Similarly, previous empirical studies have indicated that
processing, distribution, and marketing activities, which the use of fertilizer has significant effect in achieving of
generally affects women’s food security and nutrition. food security. For instance, Stewart and Roberts (2012)
Zakari et al. (2014) also found that male-headed have evaluated long-term studies, and the result shows
households are more food secure compared to female that the average percent of yield attributable to fertilizer
headed households, which is consistent with result inputs ranges from 40 to 60% in temperature climates.
shown in Table 2. Specially, yield attributable to fertilizer tends to be much
Food insecurity and educational deprivation are highly higher in the tropics, which ensures food security in the
correlated, and they create vicious circle in rural areas considered by the studies.
community of many developing countries (DFID, 2005). Improved seed is also a key input for improving
In the same way, from Table 2, we understand that agricultural productivity; thus enhancing household food
illiterate households are more food insecure than literate availability and increasing household income. Table 2
households, revealing that education contributes to food confirms that improved seed very is important in attaining
security especially through influencing productivity. This food security in the study area. Rural households that use
finding is consistent with the result of study conducted by improved seed are food secure, whereas 81% rural
Mutisya et al. (2016). Using longitudinal data analysis, households who do not use improved seed are food
Mutisya et al. (2016) found that the probability of being insecure, and the difference between the users and non-
food insecure decreased by 0.019 for a unit increase in users of improved seed is significant. This result is
the average years of schooling for a given household. In consistent with a study by Bekele (2017), finding that
addition, Mutisya et al. (2016) explained that investment improved seed beneficiaries earn 41.8% higher income
in education of households, in the long-run, contributes to than non-beneficiaries. In addition, he suggested that
reduction in the prevalence of food security. sustainable access to improved seeds by food insecure
Livestock ownership plays a key role in contributing to households can ensure them to improve their food
 Feyisa et al. 409

Table 2. Comparison of food insecurity by different socio-economic variables.

Variable Categories Food insecure (%) Percentage difference t-value

Female 57
Sex of household head 39 14.982***
Male 18

1
Illiterate 86
Education 81 3.939***
Literate 5

No 80
Land ownership 57 2.968***
Yes 23

No 90
Livestock ownership 71 5.513***
Yes 19

Non-users 95
Fertilizer usage 84 10.785***
Users 11

Non-users 81
Improved seed usage 81 17.933***
Users 0

Non-users 69
Pesticide usage 66 11.224***
Users 3

Non-users 85
Herbicide usage 85 21.486***
Users 0

No 78
Market access 73 12.296***
Yes 5

No 71
Credit access 68 11.747***
Yes 3

No 81
Road access 77 14.232***
Yes 4
*P<0.1, **P<0.05, ***P<0.01.
Source: Sample Household Survey (2018).

security status. increase in the non-staple food expenditure share, which

Access to market and road play a crucial role in is an indicator of food security. Table 2 also reveals that
achieving global food security by increasing access to households that have access to road are more food
food. More importantly, farmers can boost agricultural secure than those that have limited access to road.
output productivity and availability through getting access Shively and Thapa (2017) have confirmed this finding, in
to agricultural input markets, such as improved seed and which they found that food insecurity prevalence falls by
fertilizer. Besides, farmers can increase production if they 0.5% for each one-hour reduction in travel time to a well-
have access to feasible market for their agricultural paved road.
outputs. In Woliso district, as can be seen from Table 2, Access to credit is also an important instrument for
households that do not have access to market are more household in purchasing modern agricultural technologies
food insecure than those who have access to it. In when the household faces budget deficit. It also
studying the correlation between market access and level normalizes consumption at the hard time. The result in
of food security in Nepal, Shively and Thapa (2017) have Table 2 shows that households that have access to credit
found that each one-hour reduction in travel time required are more food secure than those having limited access to
to reach a market center is associated with a 0.2% it.
410 J. Dev. Agric. Econ.

Table 3. The Logit model regression result for determinants of food insecurity (Y=1).

Robust Odds 95% confidence interval of

Food insecurity Coefficient Z-value P>|z|
standard error ratio odds ratio
HHSex (cat.) -0.611 1.376 -0.44 0.657 0.543 [0.036, 8.048]
HHE (cat.) -5.782 2.712 -2.13 0.033** 0.003 [0.000, 0.626]
2
DR (cont.) 3.472 2.079 1.67 0.095* 32.188 [0.547, 1892.495]
Mkt (cat.) -1.657 1.047 -1.58 0.114 0.191 [0.024, 1.484]
Pest (cat.) 0.135 1.120 0.12 0.904 1.145 [0.127, 10.288]
Fert (cont.) 1.283 0.619 2.07 0.038** 3.608 [1.071, 12.145]
Land (cont.) -3.211 1.502 -2.14 0.033** 0.040 [0.002, 0.765]
Livestock (cat.) -0.083 1.924 -0.04 0.965 0.920 [0.021, 39.948]
Constant 2.781 1.425 1.95 0.051 16.127 [0.987, 263.496]
Number of observation 122
2
Wald chi (8) 26.85***
2
Prob > chi 0.0008
2
Pseudo R 0.8715
Log likelihood -8.129
1
Illiterate means those that cannot read and write. 2Dependency ratio is the proportion of the number of household members whose age are
less than 15 years and greater than 65 years to the number of household members whose age are in between 15 and 65 years.
(cat.) and (cont.) represent categorical variable and continuous variable, respectively. *P<0.1, **P<0.05, ***P<0.01.
Pseudo R2 , where is the log-likelihood function for the estimated

model and is the log-likelihood function with only intercept. The odds ratio is computed from the logistic regression using STATA software.
Source: Sample Household Survey (2018)

Econometric analysis achievement of food security as compared to illiterate

households. Similarly, Okyere et al. (2013) found
The Logit model having eight explanatory variables was negative and significant association between education
estimated, and the result of the regression is shown in level of household head and food insecurity. In their
Table 3. The explanatory variables are identified based study, they showed that the odds of household heads
on the previous empirical literatures. Some important having primary education are about 2.2 times more likely
variables that may affect household’s food security to be food secure than those with no formal education.
status, such as access to road, credit, herbicide and The maximum likelihood estimate shows that
improved seed were omitted from the model because of dependency ratio significantly influences food insecurity,
the problem of multi-collineratity. and there is positive association between them. As it is
From Table 3, we see that out of eight explanatory observed from Table 3, the odds ratio in favor food
variables included in the model, four of them were found insecurity will increase by a factor of 32.188 as the
to be significant. These are household’s education level, dependency ratio increases by one unit. In other words,
dependency ratio, amount of amount of land and amount the probability that a household becomes food insecure
of fertilizer. While the first three explanatory variables will increase as the number of dependent members of the
have the expected sign, the last one come up with household increases. This finding is obvious because the
unexpected sign. dependents contribute less labor and income to the
The regression result reveals that education level of family, which reduces the amount of food available to
household head has negative and significant effect on each of the family member. This reiterates the findings of
household food insecurity. The odds ratio in favor of food others in which a household with large size, composed of
insecurity of illiterate households is 0.3% much higher mainly non-productive members is more likely to be food
than that of literate households, indicating that illiterate insecure due to high burden levied on active labor
households are more food insecure than literate (Beyene and Muche, 2010). Moreover, the positive
households. This reflects improvement in human capital relation between dependency ratio and food insecurity
contributes to food security significantly, which is implies that family planning policies, which have an
consistent with our descriptive analysis. The possible impact in reducing dependent household size, will
explanation of this result is that literate households have increase the probability of a household to be food secure.
more chance to apply their knowledge towards the In contrast to the result shown in the descriptive
 Feyisa et al. 411

analysis, amount of fertilizer is negatively correlated with CONFLICT OF INTERESTS

food security. This finding contradicts previous findings,
who stating that there is a positive association between The author has not declared any conflict of interests.
the amount of fertilizer applied in farming and
achievement of food security (Beyene and Muche, 2010;
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