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Abstract
Although 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.
Acknowledgments
The authors of this study wish to express their deepest gratitude to the Ministry of Education for its financial support in undertaking this study. The authors would also like to thank Mattu and Haramaya University for their facilitation. Special thanks also go to Professor Jema Haji, Dr. Kedir Jemal, and Dr. Fresenbat Zeleke for their valuable comments, sampled respondents, enumerators involved in data collection, the agricultural office of each district and Arsi Zone office of agriculture and rural development would have special thanks for their direct and indirect contribution for the successful completion of this work. Finally, we would like to acknowledge the editor and reviewers of this journal.
Authors’ contributions
Mustefa Bati: prepared the proposal, collected the data, analyzed, interpreted the data, and wrote the paper. Jema Haji, Kedir Jemal, and Fresenbat Zeleke provide valuable comments on the produced report.
Disclosure statement
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
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Notes on contributors
Mustefa Bati Geda
Mustefa Bati Geda is a lecturer and Assistant Professor of Agricultural Economics at the Department of Agricultural Economics, Mattu University, Ethiopia. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Discipline of Agricultural Economics at Haramaya University.
Jema Haji Mohammed
Jema Haji Mohammed is a professor of agricultural economics and lecturer at Haramaya University, Ethiopia.
Kedir Jemal Ibrahim
Kedir Jemal is an assistant professor of Agricultural Economics and is the head school of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness, at Haramaya University, Ethiopia.
Fresenbet Zeleke Abshiro
Fresenbat Zeleke is also an assistant professor of Agricultural Economics in the School of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness at Haramaya University, Ethiopia.