Food security intervention mechanisms in the drought-prone rural areas of Tigray.

Introduction: Tigray is one of the food-insecure regions with many people living under the condition of chronic hunger. Proper intervention mechanisms are vital for addressing food insecurity. Yet, food security intervention mechanisms of various levels are not researched well. Besides, previous studies have rarely addressed the objectives of food security intervention mechanisms in relation to the four pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability. Thus, this study aims to investigate the food security intervention mechanisms in the drought-prone rural areas of Tigray in relation with the major components of food security. Methodology: This study has employed a cross-sectional study design based on a mixed research approach with primary and secondary data. For this, 363 households from three selected drought-prone rural districts, i.e., Atsbi-wenberta, Irob, and Hintalo- wejerat were studied. Primary data were collected using questionnaires and key-informant interviews. And, secondary data were collected from relevant archives and policy documents. The obtained data were analyzed descriptively and content-wise. Results: Findings show that there were several international interventions intended to halt food insecurity sustainably through financial aid, but many of the interventions were found to be responding to humanitarian crises mainly the food shortages. Ethiopia's Food and Nutrition Policy, Food Security Program, Food Security Strategy, and Food Security Pack program were the food security intervention mechanisms at the national level. These interventions were found to be inconsistent with each other in their intended goals. Regionally, no food security strategy or program was found intervening to the prevailing food insecurity in Tigray. More notably, the region has no food security bureau or office that deals with food security issues of the region. At a community level, food aid, and PSNP transfers have been the usual food security intervention mechanisms. 35.6% (77,010) of the population in the study rural districts were found to be rural PSNP beneficiaries. The food aid and PSNP transfers were outrageously insufficient for the recipients to cope with food insecurity. Conclusion: Intervention mechanisms should focus on enhancing vulnerable households' coping and adaptive capacities to deal with food security problems. In this regard, all the food security intervention mechanisms of various levels should be integrated into the common goal of achieving food security.

A comprehensive analysis of food insecurity in the drought-prone rural areas of Tigray.

BACKGROUND: The number of globally food-insecure people is increasing since 2017. Sub-Saharan Africa has the highest proportion of severely food-insecure people in the world. Tigray region of Ethiopia is one of the food-insecure regions, which, over the past many decades has been affected by recurrent food insecurities. In the drought-prone rural areas of Tigray, many people are living under the condition of chronic hunger. Proper food security studies are vital for proper intervention mechanisms. Yet, previous food security studies have rarely addressed the four pillars of food security: availability, access, utilization, and stability. In this study, all components are duly considered to assess the food insecurity status in the drought-prone rural areas of Tigray, Ethiopia. Of the 34 rural districts in Tigray, 363 households from three drought-prone rural districts were studied. RESULTS: Household Food Insecurity Access Scale and Food Insecurity Experience Scale were adapted to measure the food availability, access to food, and stability components of food security; and, Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS), Food Consumption Score (FCS), mid-upper arm circumference, and Bitot's spot were used to analyze the food utilization aspect. Findings show that 68% of the studied community frequently ate less food than they felt they needed and 82.1% of the households have experienced hunger because of lack of food. The study rural districts were unconnected to road networks; hence, 87.9% of the elderly and 20.4% of the women and girls had no access to food markets. Regarding the food utilization, 81.5% of the studied households had poor FCS; and the average HDDS and FCS for the study areas were 2.47 and 18.9, respectively. The prevalence of Global acute malnutrition, severe acute malnutrition (SAM), and moderate acute malnutrition (MAM) for 6-59 months of age children in the study areas were 50.3, 4.2, and 46.1%, respectively. More notably, the prevalence of SAM for children from the food-insecure households was 21.2%. The prevalence of MAM for pregnant and lactating women (PLW) in the study areas was 59.5. Further, the prevalence of Bitot's spot among 6-59 months of age children was 1.9%. On the other hand, all the rural households had anxiety about their future food demands. CONCLUSION: The rural households living in the studied areas were critically food-insecure. All the measurements implied that the food insecurity situation in the study areas was unacceptably worrisome and life-threatening. This calls for an instant action to avert the occurrence of famine and starvation in the drought-prone rural areas of Tigray region. Thus, interventions should primarily target the vulnerable rural people and need to be planned based on attaining food availability first rather than concurrently addressing all components of food security. Further, due emphasis should be given to diversifying livelihood strategies of the vulnerable villagers.

Smallholder farmers' behavioural intentions towards sustainable agricultural practices.

The introduction of sustainable practices is considered a win-win strategy for low-income countries because of its potential to simultaneously improve food security and address environmental issues. Despite the numerous studies that focus on the adoption of technological innovations, little work has been done on the socio-psychological behaviour of farmers with regard to sustainable practices. This study investigates smallholder farmers' intentions towards two practices: minimum tillage and row planting. The decomposed theory of planned behaviour is used as a theoretical framework to analyse the intentions. The findings reveal that attitudes and normative issues positively explain farmers' intentions to adopt both practices. Perceived control also has a positive significant effect on the intention to apply minimum tillage. When the intention is formed, farmers are expected to carry out their intention when opportunities arise. Moreover, perceived usefulness, social capital, and perceived ease of operation are also significant predictors of farmers' attitudes. Furthermore, social capital and training are factors that positively affect the normative issue, which in turn also positively mediates the relationship between training, social capital and intention. Finally, it is shown that neither the perceived resources nor information from the media significantly affect farmers' intentions. This paper thus confirms that social capital, personal efficacy, training and perceived usefulness play significant roles in the decision to adopt sustainable practices. In addition, willingness to adopt seems to be limited by negative attitudes and by weak normative issues. Therefore, to improve adoption of sustainable practices by smallholder farmers, attention should be given to socio-psychological issues. This could lead to improvements in farm productivity and enhance the livelihoods of smallholders.