Background: Dietary diversity is defined as the number of different foods or food group consumed over a given reference period. In developing countries, dietary diversity is a challenge for rural communities especially women at reproductive age, who are vulnerable to malnutrition as maternal nutrient need increase during pregnancy and lactation. Malnourished mothers are unable to combat disease, and to feed adequate nutrients to their children and this will in turn affect the socio-economic development of the country. Since it is assumed that knowing the extent of dietary diversity is crucial to design strategy or plan to alleviate the problem, Objective: To assess the dietary diversity status and associated factors among lactating mothers. Methods: community-based cross-sectional study design was employed. Four hundred sixteen lactating mothers were included via systematic random sampling techniques. The nature of the questioner structured and semi-structured, Data was entered, cleaned and then analyzed using SPSS version 21 software. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression models were used to determine the associated factors affecting dietary diversity. Odds ratio (OR) with 95 % Confidence Interval (C.I) and p≤0.05 were used to test the association. Result: More than two third of (70 %) of the lactating mothers was from food insecure households. The mean DDS was 3.14 and a total of 65.7 % lactating mothers had low dietary diversity (less than mean DDS). Meal frequency, pulses production, delivery at health center; home gardening, income generating activity, food insecurity and mobile phone usage had significant association with dietary diversity. Conclusion: Lactating mother’s dietary diversity was low in the study area. Therefore, government and other concerned bodies should design and implement multi-dimensional livelihood and health service programs towards alleviating low dietary diversity.