TECHNOLOGICAL CHANGE AND FARM HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY IN MORETNA J IRU DISTIUCT OF THE CENTRAL HIGHLANDS OF ETIfIOPIA

Abstract

people a f all times to enough food for an active, productive and
heallily life. Food security can be achieved when households produce
enough staple crops for their OWl/ consumption or when they have enough
disposable income to meet their food needs from the market. Like many
developing countries, Ethiopian f armers in the highlands predominantly
practice subsistence f arming, and are often subject to food insecurity. At the
current rapidly growing population and the deC/ining arable land, 'the
elimination of chronic f ood iI/security is highly anked with the use of
productivity increasing technological innovations. This study has Deell.
conducted with the major objective of assessing the impact of technological
change on farm hous·ehold food security in one of the districts of the Central
Highlands of Ethiopia. With the help of simultaneous equation Tobit model,~
the relationship between household food security and teelmologlcol change
has been analyzed. Based on the recommended calorie consumption per
adult equivalent requirement (243 kg of grains per allnum), 67.5 percent
and 32.5 percellt of the sample farm households are classified as food
secure and insecure respectively. Similarly, for the tecllllological change,
75.8 percent of the sample farmers are found as adopters of improved crop
varieties while the remaining 24.2 percent of farmers as non·adopters. The
result indicates that there is a significant and positive simultaneous
interaction between technological challge and household food security. On
the one hand, a unit percentage change in the intensity of technology