Determinants of Food Insecurity among Rural Farm Households: An Evidence from Kindo Didaye District of Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

In a world where food production is sufficiently enough to feed everyone, currently more than 805 million people live in conditions of undernourishment, hunger, or starvation. The fundamental causes for the prevalence of such an unacceptable number of undernourished population globally have been well documented in literatures. However, the food security analysis at a given area usually fails to show the true picture of the situation in another hypothetical area. This fact along with lack of previous research works in Kindo Didaye district have necessitated the present study. Accordingly, the causes of food insecurity in the study area were basically classified into three categories: the demographic factors, socioeconomic factors, and government policy related factors. On the basis of this, the present study demonstrates the essential determinants of the state of food insecurity among rural farm households in Kindo Didaye district of southern Ethiopia. The study was carried out to achieve three specific objectives. The first being to estimate the extent of food insecurity among rural farm households, the second was to identify factors that could potentially affect the households’ food security status, and the third being to find out the coping strategies of households during food shortage.