HOUSEHOLD FOOD INSECURITY SITUATION AND COPING STRATEGIES IN URBAN SETTING: THE CASE OF DURAME TOWN IN KEMBATA TEMBARO ZONE, SNNPR, ETHIOPIA.

ABSTRACT Now a day food insecurity issues become one of the serious concern and top priority area for developing countries. Urban areas are faced with the problem of increasing population and consequently inadequate supply of food items. With the current progressing urbanization, increasing urban poverty trends, and rapid run-up in prices of food, the question of urban food insecurity could become one of the greatest challenges for many urban households, and the concern of food insecurity are progressively shifting from rural to urban. Hence, this study was conducted to assess household’s food insecurity situation, to identify the factors affecting food insecurity on the households as well as their coping strategies. In order to achieve these objectives demographic and socio-economic data were collected, the researcher has used 133 respondents for questionnaire, and 13 FGD respondents, 12 key informant interview respondents. Households were selected using systematic random sampling procedure proportional to size from the selected three kebele of the study area. Both qualitative and quantitative methodologies were applied. These techniques where choosen because they could provide information concerning the current situation of the study area.The triangulation of structured interview of sample households, in-depth interview with key informants, focus group discussions, observations, published and unpublished materials were employed as sources of data. The finding of the study on the types of coping strategies used by households in the study area has shown that HHs implement various coping strategies at the food shortages. On the other hand, reduction of the size of meals; reduction in number of meals per day, borrowing cash, received food aid and become daily laborer were found to be more frequently practiced coping strategies. The major coping strategies against food shortages were the purchase of less preferred food and reduction in the quantity of meals.HH size, HHHs income, HHHs age, HHHs education, owning bank account, marital status, and income from remittance and gift were found to influence the HHs food insecurity in the study area.Unemploymnt,urban expantion,population growth, scarcity of resources ,drought,and the price of the crop rise are the main factors in the Durame town.Moreover, the study recommended the capacity building for elderly and female headed household, provision of better family planning to reduce HH size; getting better urban infrastructure and social services, promoting urban agriculture and strengthen HH asset building programs to strengthen the link between urban development and food security programs and rural development as strategies to enhance the accessibility of food for urban HHs.Hence all the concerned bodies including NGOs are responsible to inhance the accessibility of food for the community members. The study recommends that efforts at reducing food insecurity among urban HHs should focus on increasing urban HH income and food supply.