Determinants of Household Resilience to Food Insecurity for Comparison: the Case of Chencha District, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Background Food insecurity is a historical global human challenge, but has yet remained a burning development agenda. The capacity to withstand and recover from food insecurity shocks and stresses refereed as resilience, which is determined by a strand of factors. This paper deals with measuring and; identifying major determinants of household resilience to food insecurity among weaving-based livelihood system in Chencha district. Methods Multi-stage sampling technique was employed to generate data from 303 sample households through household survey, focus group discussion, and key informant interviews. The collected data were analyzed by using descriptive statistics, household resilience index, chi-square test, one-way ANOVA and econometric model (probit regression). Results The household survey revealed that 59.04% households were non-resilient, 24.42% were moderately resilient, 10.89% resilient and 4.95% highly resilient. The Chi-square and one-way ANOVA tests have shown a meaningful and statistically significant difference among resilience categories. Finally, probit model analysis indicated that access to credit, average years of family education, crop diversity, income diversity, landholding size, TLU, expected crop harvest, expected cash income from fruit trees, frequency of extension contact, FCS, annual food expenditure, ownerships of Radio, Jewelry, furnished bed, membership in local associations, and distance to local market have positively influenced the likelihood of attaining higher household resilience at CI 95% or P<1%, 5% and 10%. Whereas; lack of access to mobile phone, inability to read and write, family business, formal employment, and transfers of payment have decreased likelihood of households to achieve higher resilience level. Conclusions Therefore, improving household access to credit, education, income diversification, livestock and land, agricultural extension services, membership to local associations, mobile service, and income diversification would enhance household income and food security, which could in turn improve household resilience to food insecurity.