MAGNITUDE AND DETERMINANTS OF PASTORAL HOUSEHOLDS FOOD INSECURITY: THE CASE OF DEGAHBOUR DISTRICT OF SOMALI REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

The design and implementation of effective measures to reduce pastoral household food insecurity in the study area depends on an in-depth understanding of the dimensions, covariates and magnitude of food insecurity. Therefore, this study was carried out with the objectives of measuring the magnitude and determinants of pastoral households’ food insecurity in Degahbour district of Somali Regional State. To achieve these objectives, crosssectional data on demographic, socio-economic and institutional characteristics were collected from 123 households drawn randomly from four kebeles. Quantitative data was collected through structured interview schedule and qualitative data was collected through focus group discussions were used to generate data. The main tools of data analysis for this study include Foster-Greerer-Thorbek, descriptive statistics, and binary logit regression model. The head count ratio computed by Foster-Greerer-Thorbek model revealed that 66.67% of sample households were food insecure while the food insecurity gap and severity were 21% and 10%, respectively. Logit model results showed that livestock holding, income from livestock sources, non-livestock income and social support significantly and negatively affected food insecurity while family size, dependency ratio, age, sex and livestock diseases incidence had a positive and significant effect on food insecurity. Finally, based on the findings of the study, some of the key recommendations to tackle pastoral households’ food insecurity in the study area include, family planning, effective targeting of households with older and female heads improving the production and productivity and marketing conditions of livestock, provision of veterinary services to prevent the livestock diseases, improved utilization of resources and promoting traditional social networks for sharing resources