Cogent Food & Agriculture (Dec 2024)
Determinants of household-level food and nutrition security in wheat farmers of Arsi Zone, Ethiopia
Abstract
AbstractAlthough the 2030 Agenda’s aim of "zero hunger and malnutrition" has achieved tremendous progress, the prevalence of food insecurity and malnutrition is constantly rising worldwide. Hence, determining the variables influencing the food and nutrition security of wheat farmers in Arsi Zone of Ethiopia’s was the aim of this study. A random sampling technique was used to collect primary data from 422 households spread over three districts. Household dietary diversity score and calorie acquisition score were used to measure the nutrition and food security status, respectively. The result of descriptive statistics revealed that 70.85% of the sample households were food secure while the remaining 29.15% were insecure. Likewise, it was found that 26.07%, 52.61%, and 21.33% of the sample households had low, medium, and high nutritional levels, respectively. The result of the binary logit model pointed out that livestock holding, frequency of extension contact, inorganic fertilizer, irrigation, and vegetation coverage were positively associated with the likelihood of food security whereas family size and distance from the market were negatively associated with it. The results of ordered logit showed that the level of education, participation in safety-net programs, total income, farm size, market information, and soil fertility had positive and significant effects on household nutritional status while the distances to the market and health center were negatively associated with it. Thus, strong attention should be given in improving land, and livestock productivity, family planning, farmers’ education, soil fertility of wheat farms, interactions with extension agents, and utilizing irrigation technologies.
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