Household food insecurity predictors and coping strategies in Basketo Special District, Southern Ethiopia: using the double hurdle model

Abstract

In Ethiopia, recent reports reveal that nearly 31 million people in the country failed to feed themselves and are suffering from food insecurity problems. The purpose of this study was to examine households’ determinants of food insecurity among rural households in Basketo Special District. An explanatory cross-sectional research design with a mixed research approach was employed. The study has conducted household-level survey data collection from sample households in 14 kebeles of Basketo special district, and secondary data was collected from the documents of the agriculture and extension development office of the district. A stratified random sampling technique has been employed to select 383 sample households. The consumption expenditure approach, particularly calorie acquisition by households, was used to categorize the sample households into food-secure and food-insecure households. Both descriptive and econometric analyses were used to analyze the data collected from households. Our study finds that of the total sampled households, 52.29% (194) were found to be food insecure households, whereas 47.71% (177) were food secure. More specifically, econometric analysis was held by the double hurdle model and revealed that among the fourteen explanatory variables considered, six were statistically significant. These include the age of the household head, sex of the household head, family size, market distance, access to credit, and livestock holding in the tropical livestock unit; they significantly affected households’ probability of being food insecure. From this study, it was suggested that to improve households’ food insecurity status in the study area, households should adopt family planning techniques and women’s empowerment strategies.