An Assessment of Household Food Insecurity: The case of Wonji-Shoa Sugar Project, Adama District, Central Ethiopia.

Abstract This academic research was dedicated to investigate the status of food security among labor house- hold who were living in the plantation villages of Wonji-Shoa Sugar project. The issue was selected due to the fact that; food insecurity is one of the global problem, in particular the problem of most people living in the third world like Ethiopia. The researcher applied both quantitative and quali tative approach to collect and analyze the data. For that matter the sample households were selected based on random sampling technique, by stratifying the labor groups, i.e., Plantation Permanent Laborers (PPL), Seasonal Laborers (SL) and Casual Laborers (CL). Based on this, about 218 labor households were selected based on proportional percentage from the total number of laborers found in the plantation. The researcher utilized both primary and secondary source of data and statistical tools to collect the necessary data. Among them, household’s questionnaire survey were used to collect data from the sample labor households. Which is designed to identify various socio economic and demographic characteristics and to measure the amount of food found per sample labor households per a specific period of time. Amount of available food found per household is calculated based on Households Food Balance Model (HFBM). Moreover, the researcher used Key Informant Interview (KII)) and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) with laborers who serve for a long period in the sugar plantation, supervisor and women headed labor households. Based on collected datas, most of the sample households were found with poor educational status, large family size, low level of salary/wage earning and poor asset ownership. Besides with this, majority of the sample households does not meet the nationally requierd per capita calorie per day, i.e., 2100 calorie per day. Furthermore, the study found the sampled labor households with various health problems and unsanitary living environment with poor and suffocated housing. Furthermore, they don’t have proper access to safe drinking water. Based on correlation analysis five predectors are found to have significant impact on per capita calorie. Educational level, family size, income from livestock product sale, number of milking cow and salary/wage found having the determinant impact on the dependent variable, per capita calorie. Accordingly, the researcher puts some vital comments based on the finding to the respected bodies to alleviate the problem of food security and the general livelihoods of labor households living in the plantation camps of WSSP.