Effect of integrated sustainable land management technologies on households’ food security in the North Gojjam sub-basin, Blue Nile River

Abstract

Abstract Integrated Sustainable Land Management (ISLM) is progressively viewed as a key strategy to boost food security in Ethiopia and feed its growing population. By understanding this logical ground, this paper examines the effect of ISLM technologies adoption on household food security. The study relies on cross-sectional household-level data collected from 414 randomly selected household heads across three districts to analyze this issue. An Endogenous Switching Regression (ESR) model coupled with the Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) technique was applied to analyze the required data. The finding shows that the adoption of ISLM technologies has significantly increased food security. It specifically increases food consumption expenditure in households by ETB (national currency in Ethiopia; as of August 2021, 1 ETB is equal to approximately USD $0.02) 38.3 (27%) when compared to households that do not adopt groups. Similarly, it increases the adopter households’ dietary diversity by 14.5%. Furthermore, it plays a significant role in reducing the food gap period by one and a half months per year and the food insecurity access scale by 46% points in the north Gojjam sub-basin for those who adopted versus those who did not adopt. The policy implication is that the adoption of ISLM technologies can improve rural household food security and may be used as a means of reducing rural poverty. As a result, the adoption of ISLM technologies should have been promoted in the study area and elsewhere by inspiring land users by accessing external agricultural inputs at the right time and place to increase small-scale land productivity.