Determinants and coping strategies of household food insecurity in rural areas of Tigray: The case of rural Adwa Woreda

Abstract

This paper identified the major determinants of household food insecurity and their local coping strategies based on primary data collected from 180 randomly selected households of rural Adwa Woreda, Tigray National Regional State. To assess the determinants of food insecurity binary logit model is employed. The extent and magnitude of household food insecurity, food expenditure inequality, and the coping strategies of the food insecure households are also identified using indices of Foster, Greer and Thorbecke (FGT), Gini Coefficient, Lorenz Curve and Coping Strategy Index. The absolute food poverty line for the study area during the study period is estimated to be ETB 1634.75 per adult per year. The incidence, depth and severity of food insecurity are 63.33 percent, 18.82 percent and 6.99 percent respectively. Furthermore, the Gini Coefficient for the study area is found to be 31.20 percent. Among the most common coping mechanisms of households in the study area include selling household asset, leaving the entire days without eating and sending household members for beg. Access to agricultural extension services, off farm income, number of oxen owned, total land size and safety net participation are found to be the major determinants of household food insecurity that significantly reduce the level of households food insecurity in the study area. Whereas age dependency ratio, family size, crop disease incidence and fertilizer utilization are uncovered to be significant and positive covariates of household food insecurity in the study area.

Keywords: Food Insecurity, Coping Strategies, Absolute Food Poverty Line, Determinants of Household Food Insecurity.