IMPACTS OF CLIMATE VARIABILITY ON FOOD SECURITY OF WOMEN HEADED HOUSEHOLD’S IN SOFI WOREDA, HARARI REGIONAL STATE, ETHIOPIA

Abstract

Climate variability and change are the most serious environmental threats to food security by affecting food systems in several ways ranging from direct effects on crop production to changes in markets (food prices). The objective of this study is to assess and identify the impact of climate variability on food security of rural women-headed households and their coping mechanisms in the study area. Both qualitative and quantitative data was collected from primary and secondary source. Purposive and stratified random sampling was employed to obtain a sampled 148 rural women headed households. Descriptive statistics, multiple regression, correlation and coefficient of variation were used to analyze these data. The results show that mean annual rainfall was characterized by both seasonal and inter annual variability while mean annual temperature had increased during the period. Climate variables accounted for 30 percent of the variation in production and 9.9 percent of the price. As a result, women headed household food security situation was vary depend on climate variations. Based on these findings, the study concluded that mean annual temperature and rainfall were the main determinants of the rural women headed households food availability. Therefore, the government needs to help women headed households to overcome the constraints they face. Furthermore, the government can play a significant role by providing support during the climatic risk beyond local coping capacity and promoting awareness creating program and support of meteorological service by reporting and alerting women headed households about weather changes in an understandable way so that they can be able to plan for their future production hence food security.