Role of Home Garden Agroforestry Practice to Food Security in Former Sidama Zone, Aleta Chuko Woreda, Southern Ethiopia

Abstract

Currently, practicing monocropping agriculture in Ethiopia adversely affected by climate change hazards. This might be in turn aggravated to food insecurity crises. Thus, agroforestry practice has been used widely in developing world as a strategy to overcome the effects. The main idea of this paper was examining the role of home garden agroforestry practice to food security in Southern Nations, former Sidama Zone, Aleta Chuko woreda. The researchers employed a multi-stage sampling approach in order to choose the households included in the sample. Data was collected from technology adopters with similar socioeconomic background. The household survey comprised a participation of 312 households in total. In addition, Focus Group Discussion and Key Informant Interviews were carried out.The data was analyzed using descriptive statistics and a binary logit regression model. The result of this study revealed the roles of the technology in the area are tackling food problems, additional income sources and ameliorate soil fertility.

According to the results obtained from the logistic regression analysis, variables such as access to credit and extension service, educational status, family size, and membership of a cooperative group demonstrated a statistically significant relationship with the adoption of homegarden agroforestry.Based on the findings, the study recommends that the government should promote the practice of home garden agroforestry as a means to enhance the livelihoods of farmers and enhance their resilience in the face of variable climate conditions.