Urban dairy farming and households food security: evidence from a 24-hour dietary recall survey in Ethiopia

Purpose Over the past two decades, the development of Micro and Small Enterprises (MSE) has received significant attention in Ethiopia. Within this sector, urban dairy production has emerged as a prominent enterprise in the Southern zone of Tigray. This study investigates the impacts of urban dairy farming on household food security. Design/methodology/approach Data collected from 272 households selected through stratified random sampling were analyzed using descriptive statistics, PSM and Poisson regression. Food security status was measured by the diversity of foods a household consumed within 24-h time. Findings The findings revealed that households engaged in urban dairy farming consume higher food groups than their counterparts. Besides, the results indicated that education of the household head and engagement in non-causal wages and self-employment have a statistically significant positive relationship with the expected household dietary diversity score (DDS). Conversely, it negatively relates to the family size and age of the household head. Research limitations/implications While urban dairy farming has the potential to further improve household food security, its current impact is modest. To maximize its contribution to food security, interventions mitigating livestock feed supply and dairy product market constraints are required. Originality/value The results highlight urban dairy farming as a strategy to improve urban household food security. This study contributes to the field by focusing on urban dairy farming and applying household DDS to assess food security.