COLLAGES OF AGRICULTURAL AND NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

DEPARTMENTS OF AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS

Senior Seminar on:

REVIEW ON DETERMINANTS OF FOOD INSECURITY IN ETHIOPIA

ADVISER: Anwar.M(MSc)

February 2021
BONGA, ETHIOPIA
Name ID NO
Bontu Alemu .........................................................2239/12
Gemechu Dinkisa ………………………………………2200/12
Hewan Nuggusie…………………………………………1728/12
Teshome Chekol …………………………………………. 1648/12
Yonathan Zelie ………………………………………… 2178/12

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TABLE OF CONTENTES PAGES

ACKNOLEWDGMENT………………………………………………………………….….3

ABBREVATION AND ACRONYMS……………………………………………….…4

1. Introduction…………………………………………………………………………….5

1.1 Background…………………………………………………………………………5

1.2 statement of the seminar …………………………………………………………6

2. Literature review…………………………………………………………………….8

2.1 concepts and definition of food security………………………………………8

2.2 Causes of food insecurity in Ethiopia …………………………………………9

2.3 Indicators of food insecurity……………………………………………………….10

2.4 Challenges in achieving food security in Ethiopia ……………………….…..11

2.5 Coping strategies practiced in Ethiopia………………………………12

2.6 Policy options minimize food in security in Ethiopia…………………….12

2.7 Empirical Review…………………………………………………..13

3. Conclusion……………………………………………………………14

3.1 Recommendation…………………………………………………………14

4. References……………………………………………………………….15

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 ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First we praise the Almighty GOD For He has blessed us with good health, intellectual
efficiency. And our talented teachers and sympathetic friends, whose support and consistently
encouraging and inspiring us. and also enabled us to start this senior seminar paper.

we feel great pleasure and honor to express our heartiest gratitude and

deep sense of obligation to my advisor Anwar muzemil (M.Sc.) for his keen interest,

encouraging guidance, for his valuable advice, insight and guidance from the initiation to the
completion of these senior seminar paper, his open-minded views, help and valuable suggestions
for the successful beginning of this senior seminar paper.

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ABBREVIATION AND ACRONMYS

AFI Amagansett Food Institution

CSA Central Statistical Agency

FAD Food Availability Decline

FAO Food and Agriculture Organization

GDP Gross Domestic Product

MDER Minimum Dietary Energy Requirement

RRC Relief and Rehabilitation Commission

UN United Nation

US United States

USAID United States Agency for International Development

UNCICEF United nations children’s international children’s emerges funds

USD United States Dollar

WB World Bank

WFP World Food Program

WFS World Food Summit

WHO World Health Organization

ABSTRACT

Household food insecurity exists when a family does not have adequate physical, social and
economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet the dietary needs and food
preferences of its members for an active and healthy life. It is one of the underlying causes of
all forms of malnutrition, including inadequate quantity, poor quality, and continuity of diet that
persists as a major challenge around the world

The main objective of the seminar is to review the determinants of households’ food insecurity.
And also the causes of household food insecurity and food security strategy. Now a day food
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insecurity issues become one of the critical concern and top priority area for developing
countries. Having clear picture on food insecurity status and its major determinants helps policy
makers and planners to devise new policies that enhance food security.
Hence, this study was reviewed to determine the status of food security in Ethiopia, to identify
the major determinants of food insecurity among the rural household, and to identify coping
strategies employed by different food security status groups to cope with food insecurity.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1. Back ground Information of the Seminar

Hunger and undernourishment are the main challenges of today’s world and 960 million people
are hungry and undernourished. The severity of the challenge is very high in developing and
tropical countries.
Majority of the African countries has been hosting frequent and sever hunger and
undernourishment. Of the total African population, 27.4% is found under chronic food insecurity
problem which is four times more than any other continent in the world. Among the African
countries, Ethiopia has the highest prevalence of undernourishment (32.1 million people) from
Sub-Saharan Africa followed by Tanzania (15.7 million), Nigeria (12.1 million), Kenya(11
million) and Uganda (10.7 million). ( Mesfin melese 2021)

In 2015, Ethiopia faced one of the most severe droughts in half a century due to the effects of El
Niño. It experience between 50 and 90 percent crop loss and the livestock sector has seen
extreme mortality and morbidity rates and abnormal migration in search of pasture and water.
Many families dependent on agriculture have become indebted and dependent on humanitarian
assistance with inadequate sources of food and income as a result of the drought; vulnerable rural
households face widespread hunger and malnutrition. In late 2015, a Government-led multi-
agency me her assessment found that 10.2 million people were food insecure, while 2 million
required agricultural input support to resume food production and also in 2016, FAO assist
vulnerable families to restore agricultural production, regain their livelihoods and better
withstand future crises for 1.8 million pastoralists, agro pastoralists and smallholder farmers
affected by El Niñ o (FAO, 2016).

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Government of Ethiopia has recently appealed to its international partners for emergency
food assistance to feed 10.2 million people and for special nutritional programmers‟ for
more than 2.1 million, including 400,000 severely malnourished children. In addition, over
8 million vulnerable and food-insecure people receive support under the Productive Safety
Net Programmers (Nkunzimana , 2016).

1.2. Statement of problem

Even though the governments provide food assistance for affected area, still food insecurity
problem is the major challenges of the country in different areas where drought is
frequently occurred. This problem frequently happened in different part of Ethiopia due to
anthropogenic factor and climate related factors. However, different research has been
done on determinant and dimension of food insecurity, Food surety and farming system
and other related issues. None of these researches did not bring concrete solution to
problem of food insecurity and for its determinants. Due to this fact, in view of the above
statements the review is interested to focus on determinants of food insecurity in Ethiopia.

1.3. Objective of the seminar

1.3.1. General objective of the seminar
 To review the determinants of food insecurity in Ethiopia
1.3.2. Specific objective
 To review on Causes of food insecurity in Ethiopia
 To review on Indicators of food insecurity Ethiopia
 To review on Challenges in achieving food security in Ethiopia.
 To review coping mechanism and Policy options to minimize food insecurity in Ethiopia.
1.4. Significance of the seminar
A study of determinants of household food insecurity is vital because it provides with
information that will enable effective measures to be undertaken so as to improve food
security status and bring the success of food security development programs .It will also
enable development practitioners and policy makers to have better knowledge as to where

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and how to intervene in rural areas to bring food security or minimize the severity of food
insecurity

2 LITERATURE REVIEW
2.1 Concepts and Definitions of Food insecurity

Household food insecurity exists when a family does not have adequate physical, social and
economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet the dietary needs and food
preferences of its members for an active and healthy life. It is one of the underlying causes of
all forms of malnutrition, including inadequate quantity, poor quality, and continuity of diet that
persists as a major challenge around the world. ( Metadel adane 2021)

2.2 Cause of food insecurity in Ethiopia

number of factors can explain the trend towards the increasing food insecurity situation in
Ethiopia. These are ; the interaction between environmental degradation, high population growth,
diminishing land holdings, outbreak of plant and livestock disease, chronic shortage of cash
income, poor social and infrastructural facility, instability and armed conflicts, pre and post-
harvest crop loss and lack of on-farm technological innovations led to a significant decline in the
productivity per households and cause food insecurity and starvation. (Abduselam2017).

Additionally, Food insecurity in Ethiopia is caused by population pressure, drought, shortage of

farmland, lack of oxen, deterioration of food production capacity, outbreak of plant and animal
disease, poor soil fertility, frost attack, shortage of cash income, poor farming technologies, weak
extension services, high labor wastage, poor social and infrastructural facility and pre and post-
harvest crop loss. (Birara 2015)

According the ideas of above author majority of the severest food crises after the second half of
the 20 century were caused by a combination of several factors. The most common causes of
food insecurity in African and other third world countries were: drought and other extreme
weather events, pests, livestock diseases and other agricultural problems, climate change,

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military conflicts, lack of emergency plans, corruption and political instability, cash crops
dependence, aids and rapid population growth.

According to Conflict and civil unrest is the major sources of food insecurity problems and lead
to serious disaster in Ethiopia, by disturbing the country ongoing economic growth and
development progress. Climate change affects food availability through its increasingly adverse
impacts on crop yields, fish stocks and animal health and productivity, especially in sub-Saharan
Africa and South Asia, where most of today’s food insecure live.(UNICEF 2015)

According to European Union (2012), the main causes of food insecurity are high population
growth rate, high reliance on small-size and rain-fed agricultural holdings, lack of access to
input, lack of access to credit, high susceptibility to drought, limited access to basic service, lack
of access to market, land degradation and decreased productivity, lack of income generation
opportunity and alternatives, lack of access to technology and lack of access to information on
market, agricultural technology.

2.3 Indicators of food insecurity

Assessment of food insecurity/security is a challenging work for researchers dealing with it as
there are no universally established indicators which serve as a measuring tool. It requires a
multi-dimensional consideration, since it is influenced by inter-related socio-economic,
environmental and political factors.
Because of this, analyzing food insecurity follows a variety of approaches ranging from mere
qualitative to a combination of both qualitative and quantitative measurements (Debebe H,
1995). In this context, a number of indicators have been identified. In most cases, the purpose
and the depth of the study influence the choice of the indicators.
In early warning studies conducted by the RRC have used three indicators
such as, food supply indicators (including rain fall, area planted and yield estimates), social
stress indicators (such as market prices, availability of food in the market, labor pattern, wages
and migration) and individual stress indicators (nutritional status, disease and mortality
variables) to identify food insecurity situations (RRC, 1990).

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Direct indicators of food consumption include actual food consumption rather
than to marketing channel information or medical status. The indirect indicators include storage
estimates, subsistence potential ration and nutritional status assessment (Alison and Slack, 1999).
However, there is no fixed rule as to which method to employ due to the diversified
characteristics of food insecurity and the different level of consideration. The decision to rely on
a particular method usually depends on resource and time constraints, objectives of the study,

availability of data, type of users and degree of accuracy required (Debebe, 1995).

2.4 Challenges in achieving food security in Ethiopia.

There are some drawbacks that need to be tackled in achieving food security in the country,
some among others are;
Misconception of food insecurity as it occurs in the general context of poverty and
vulnerability which doesn’t warrant any explicit focus on food security and the belief that
it can be solved in the normal course of development. This has reduced particular
attention that could be given to alleviate the food insecurity problems.
The complementarities and tradeoffs between achieving self-sufficiency through
domestic production and export of agricultural commodities in the long run and urgency
and current reliance on external aid to meet the demand by the majority of food insecure
population.
Availability of inappropriate institutions and lack of effective instruments of the current
policies, in that the current policy emphasizes and gives advantages to the better potential
areas, its recommended inputs and technologies are appropriate to those productive
potential areas who are easier to serve and better able to take the advantages of the
services provided to them, leaving the drought prone vulnerable segment of the
population at disadvantage
At last but not least, is the lack of data to support effective policy formulation and
implementation in the area of food security (Senait, 2000).

2.5 Coping mechanisms of food insecurity:

Coping strategy defined as a mechanism by which household or community members meet their

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relief and recovery needs and adjust to future disaster related risks by themselves without outside
support (Tesfaye, 2005).
The coping mechanism used by different households may be different from place to place. A
study conducted in three most deprived and poverty stricken regions in the Northern parts of
Ghana showed that households use a wide range of mechanisms and communal support networks
to cope with the situation which includes collection of wild foods, market purchases, in kind
(food) payment, support from relatives and friends, sales from livestock and household
valuables, migration and wage labor, reduction in the number of meals served each day,
reduction in the portions/ sizes of meals and consumption of less preferred foods
(Wilhemina,2008).
There are four types of coping strategies that food insecure households typically use: Changing
the diet to include less costly and less preferred alternative foods; Increasing food supplies
through non-sustainable means (e.g., borrowing money, consuming seed stocks, begging);
Decreasing the number of individuals being fed by the household (i.e., migration); and
Rationing available foods by reducing meal size or frequency (Maxwell et al. 2002).
Another study conducted by Negatu (2011) in southern Ethiopia found that a range of coping
mechanisms used by respondents which includes: minimizing the number of meals and amount
of food consumption; diversifying their livelihood; cultivating more crops, wage labor, seasonal
migration to neighboring community during peak season; and inter cropping are some of
mechanisms used by households.

2.6 Policy options to minimize food insecurity:

Food aid, today, is mainly considered as an instrument in addressing for both transitory and
chronic types of food insecurity in low-income country. It is noted that the humanitarian
agencies, or donors, implement food aid programs in these countries in order to give immediate
response to the needy people, to increase income sustainability, to improve agricultural
productivity, and improvement in health and nutrition among the residents. Moreover it leads to
improvement in the availability of food supplies at the national or regional level, or to increase
access to food at household levels through higher home production of food crops, market
purchase and/or other means or to make more effective utilization of food at the individual level
to meet human biological needs (USAID, 1999).

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 creating Policies and regulations that are conducive to enhancing regional trade, sustainable
access, and use of natural resources and private investments are also essential to the success and
the sustainability of the benefits derived from any intervention and thereby bringing food
security. (African development bank food security brief 2011)
According to Mukherjee (2008) the following strategies are appropriate to eliminate hunger
1.Strengthen productivity and incomes: Diversification and growth of the economy; low-cost,
simple technology (water management, use of green manures, crop rotation, and agro forestry);
rural infrastructure development (roads, electricity, etc.); provision for improved irrigation and
soil nutrition, natural resource management (including forestry and fisheries); market and private
sector development, Food safety and quality Agricultural research, extension and training.
2.Linkages maximizing synergy: Democratic Governance Vibrant Civil Society Strong “Fourth
Estate” Local food procurement for safety nets, Support to rural organizations; Primary health
care and reproductive health services; Prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS; Asset
redistribution (including land reforms); Education especially for girls and women Potable
drinking water
3.Provide direct access to food: Mother and infant feeding; Supplementary nutrition to children
(such as mid-day meals in Schools) and pregnant women; Unemployment and pension benefits
Food-for-work and food-for-education; Targeted conditional cash transfers Food banks and Food
Distribution System for the indigent people (Safety Nets); and Emergency ratio

2.7 Empirical of Review

There are several factors that affect food security either positively or negatively. Different
studies show the determinants of food insecurity in various parts of Ethiopia. According to
(Atimen derso 2021) by using binary and multivariable logistic model in nine districts of Addis
Abeba ,Family size of 4 or more , high dependency ratio, household lack of access to credit, low
household income and medium household income were significantly associated with household
food insecurity are the major

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determinants of food security, from those family size, livestock disease and dependency ratio are
negatively related to food security, while the remaining are positively related.

According to (Abdirahman 2015), suggestion using binary logic model, show that seven
variables were significant determinants of household food insecurity. These were distance to
nearest market center, dependency ratio, cultivated land, livestock ownership, oxen ownership,
remittance and off-farm income from those distance to nearest market center and dependency
ratio were positively related to food insecurity or negatively related to food security and the
remaining are negatively and positively related respectively.

According to (alem-meta assefa 2018), by using binary logistic regression model, in south wollo
of Ethiopia , identified variables determinants of rural household food insecurity. variables
such as age of household head, family size, number of agricultural labor force, off-farm income,
relief support/food aid, farming experience, and
agro-ecological zone were key determinants of food security of the rural household. Specifically,
the age of household head, family size, off-farm income,
According to( Aynalem moges and mada melkamu 2020),using binary logistic model around
konso district of Ethiopia,these determinant were,farmland size,education level,off-farm income,
livestock number and agro-ecology determine negatively and significantly household food
insecurity.

3. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

3.1 CONCLUSION

Food insecurity is the most critical problem facing a large

number of both settled and pastoral households in Ethiopia. Temporary food insecurity occurs
for a limited time because of unforeseen and unpredictable circumstances. Seasonal food
insecurity occurs when there is a regular pattern in the periodicity of inadequate access to food.
Food insecurity: is a situation that exists when people lack secure access to sufficient amounts of
safe and nutritious food required for normal growth and development and an active and healthy
life. Food insecurity is not static but based on its duration, its severity, and the local
socioeconomic and environmental conditions

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3.2 RECOMMENDATION
Focus should be given to increase education level, off-farm income, livestock and equal
focus is also important to reduce family size through a core rural development strategy.
Government should address mismatches between the capacity of current institutions to
manage for both food security and environmental goals.
Improved food safety along the food chain reduces food losses, resulting in increased
food availability, stability , and utilization so both government and NGO,s should focus
improving food security improved safety and quality of food contributes to improved
nutrition and health, Gov.t and NGO,s should address the dimension of food security
using different food security measurement
Government should Raise awareness of the pressures of increasing population growth
and consumption patterns on sustainable ecosystem functioning.
In order to ensure stability in food supply, government should boost domestic food
production, efficient food-marketing system at all levels, and promoting good postharvest
technologies are necessary.
Implementation of measures to improve household income, minimize the dependency ratio
of households, and arrange access to credit services are paramount ways to
tackle food insecurity problems.

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