Does PSNP participation influence the extent and choices of household coping strategies to food insecurity? Evidence from Northwestern Ethiopia

Abstract

Food security interventions are primarily intended to lessen the adverse effects of food shortages. In Ethiopia, the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) provides support for chronically food-insecure households, aiming to stabilize their consumption patterns. Therefore, this study examines the coping strategies employed by PSNP beneficiaries, graduates and non-beneficiaries in response to food insecurity and its associated factors. Data were collected from 396 sample households using a structured questionnaire. To analyze determinants of extent and choice of household coping strategies, Tobit, Zero-truncated Poisson regression and multivariate probit models were employed. The Coping Strategy Index was used to measure the household coping strategies. The study found that more than half of beneficiary and graduated households relied on less preferred food, limiting portion size at mealtimes, and reducing the number of meals in a day as coping strategy. PSNP participation had mixed effects on the extent and choice of household coping strategies. While PSNP had no significant effect on the extent and choice of beneficiary's food based coping strategies, graduated households employed fewer and more moderate food-based coping strategies and were less likely to adopt skipping meal the whole day as coping strategy. Moreover, wealth status, livestock ownership, dependency ratio, household size, frequency of health facility visits due to illness, education and drought were also significantly influenced the extent and choice of household coping strategies. Hence, this study highlights the need for strengthening PSNP, providing post-graduation support, building household assets, improving access to health services and education, and adopting drought adaptation strategies for households to better cope with food insecurity.