Status and Determinants of Rural Household Food Insecurity: The Case of Jamma District, Ethiopia

The world's central challenge for human welfare and the economic process is food security and the key challenge for several emerging nations and Ethiopia is food insecurity. Therefore, this study aimed to analyze the status and determinants of rural household food insecurity in Jamma district, Ethiopia. In this study, a multistage sampling technique was employed to collect cross-sectional data from 120 farm households. Primary data was collected through face-to face interview and semi-structured questionnaire from sample respondents. To achieve objectives both descriptive and econometric analysis were employed. For descriptive analysis, Foster-Greer-Thorbecke indices were used to analyze the status of food insecurity while econometric model analysis, Binary logistic regression model was used to identify determinants of rural household food insecurity. The descriptive result showed that about 31.67 % and 68.33% of the sample households were found to be food insecure and food secure, respectively. Moreover, FGT indices revealed that 31.7%, 7.7%, and 2.6 % were headcount ratio, food insecurity gap, and severity of food insecurity respectively. The econometric model result of Binary logit showed that education of household head, frequency of extension contacts, and ownership of saving account had a negative and statistically significant influence on the probability of being food insecure at 1% significance level while livestock holding, remittance, off-farm activity had negatively and statistically significant at 5% significance level. Therefore, the study suggests that attention should be given to assure food security in the study area through expansion of both formal and informal education, creation of income-generating opportunities through the participation of off-farm activity, improving livestock productivity through providing and supply of improved veterinary service, creating awareness to own saving account, provision of extension service. © 2023 Adonis and Abbey Publishers Ltd. All rights reserved.