Determinants of household dietary diversity in Yayu Biosphere Reserve, Southwest Ethiopia

Abstract

Lack of dietary diversity is a severe problem among the poor in the developing world, including Ethiopia. Empirical evidence for factors contributing to low dietary diversity hardly exists. The objective of this study was to analyze determinants of Household Dietary Diversity and consumption behavior in Yayu biosphere reserve, South-West Ethiopia. A cross sectional survey was conducted on 183 randomly selected households. Primary data were collected from sample households through interviews, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Secondary data were collected by reviewing different documents. Descriptive statistics and econometric models were used for analyzing quantitative data. The ordered logit model was employed to determine the influence of explanatory variables on the dependent variable. The average household dietary diversity score was 5.5±1.7SD. About 17.5% of the sampled households belonged to low, 61.2% to medium and 21.3% to high dietary diversity. The age of the household head, education, income, access to irrigation, home gardening and dietary diversity awareness affected household dietary diversity positively and significantly and distance from market negatively. In conclusion, policy and development interventions should target education and awareness creation tools to provide households up to date nutritional knowledge and agricultural technologies to increase production and income, and thereby enhance household dietary diversity.