| dc.description.abstract |
In Ethiopia and many Sub-Saharan Africa countries food insecurity is a contemporary issue
mainly caused by climate change and variability, land degradation, poor production
technologies and poor governance at grass root level. Urban areas are faced with the problem
of increasing population and consequently inadequate supply of food items. Many urban
households and individuals in Ethiopia in general and the study in particular merely eat for
Survival. This study was therefore designed to assess the status and determinants of food
security and coping strategies among urban households in Gondar towns of the Amhara
National Regional States. For this study questionnaire survey, key informants interview and
focus group discussions and non- participant observation were employed to collect the
primary data. A stratified random sampling method was employed to select the final
sampling units. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were used for data analysis and the
later included descriptive statistics and regression modeling. The survey results showed that
the majority (66.7%) of the sampled households experienced food insecurity. Several factors
were identified for the deteriorating situation of urban food security in the study area. These
are educational level, employment status, high dependency ratio, income, expenditure, saving,
remittances, house access, health status, asset ownership and poor social services. On the
other hand, households respond to the problems caused by transitory and chronic food
insecurity through relaying on less expensive foods, reducing number of meals per day, going
to never eat per a day, food aid, borrowing money from relatives, remittances and seasonal
migration etc. while the commonly used adaptive strategies include increasing working hours
and reducing social service. To improve food security situation in the study area, the following
action should be taken. The household head and members of the household should engage in
different income generating activities, increase educational participation, avoid extravagance
and remittance should be properly used for means of living, coping mechanism and to escape
from food insecurity; the government of Ethiopia should incorporate different research outputs
to design programs for food insecurity intervention; like, creating employment opportunities,
widening educational access, provide faire distribution of social services and give priority for
vernerable group of household heads are also crucial activities. |
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