Determinants of Households’ Food Security in Resettlement Areas: A Case of Resettlement Schemes in Dawuro Zone, Ethiopia

Abstract

This study assesses the execution of current resettlement program and the food security status of settlers in selected resettlement areas in Essera district of Dawuro Zone in SNNPR. One hundred thirty eight (13%) sample household heads in three kebeles were selected for survey by using simple random sampling technique. In addition, focus group discussions with representatives of settlers and direct observations have been employed to this study.

The study results show that the consultation about the program was made with majority of settlers prior to the implementation of the program and the movement of settlers to the new area was voluntarily based. In addition, the minimum standards of basic infrastructure and social service facilities were not well established in the area prior to the execution of a program and have not yet been improved. It was also noticed that household heads in resettlement areas are exhaustively depleting forest for different purposes and they have not been advised to plant new trees and to use alternative options for fuel sources and construction to reduce their reliance on natural resources like forest. Food availability and food access to household heads through on-farm activities such as crop production, livestock rearing, and their income status have been improved in resettlement areas. But some household heads are yet food insecure due to their inability to meet the daily calorie requirement for healthy and moderately active life. The logistic regression model was used to examine the probability of the food security status of household heads. Accordingly, the numbers of livestock owned in TLU and use of fertilizer have high probability to influence the food security status of households in the study area. Thus, the intervention of all concerned bodies is indispensable to enhance the food security status of households mainly by improving the livestock rearing strategies and enhancing the use of fertilizer in resettlement area. Besides, giving attention to environment conservation, improvement of infrastructure and social service facilities as well as supporting settlers to diversify their income sources are key areas of interventions to be made to enhance food security status of household heads in resettlement areas.

Keywords: Food security, resettlement, environment, settlers, on-farm activities, income diversification.