HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY STATUS: THE CASE OF DILLA ZURIA WOREDA, GEDEO ZONE OF SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA

Food security is a major concern not only to the government of food insecure countries but to the world at large. Ethiopia is one of the most food-insecure and famine affected countries. A large portion of the country’s population has been affected by chronic and transitory food insecurity. The study focus to examine the determinants of food security status among rural households of Dilla zuria woreda of Gedeo Zone, Southern Nations Nationalities Peoples Regional State. A cross-sectional data collected from a total of 123 sample households. The survey data were analyzed by using descriptive and econometric methods. The descriptive result shows that among the total sample respondents 71(57.72%) were food insecure and the rest 52(42.28%) were food secured. The econometric model result shows that out of 13 explanatory variables considered in the econometric model analysis five variables were found to be significantly influencing the rural households’ food security status. These variables include farm size, livestock owned, irrigation accesses and credit access were found to have a significant effect with positive relationship to rural household food security status. And on the other hand dependency ratio variable was also found to have a significant effect with negative relationship to rural household food security status. As the result revealed that coping strategy, At initial stage 71.54% ate less preferred foods, 8.13% receive donation in the form of grains or cash from relatives/friends, 7.31% buy food on credit base, 6.5 % selling household asset, 5.69% borrow money to buy food and 0.77 % selling livestock. On the other hand at sever stage participation in food for work (30.8%) as their first option followed by sale of more livestock than usual food for work (29.26%), like wise they also employed sale or consume of seed meant (22.31%) for next season planting, sale of production equipment (9.23%) as their fourth and food aid (7.31%) as fifth alternative and also short term migration of some family member. Based on these results, the study finally recommends alternative policy implications to improve the food security status of the rural households.