Valuation of Gender Differentiated Dairy Farming and Household Level Food Security Status in Eastern Oromia, Ethiopia

This study was aimed at examining gender diversified dairy farming and household level food security status and determinants of dairy cattle benefits in Haramaya district, Oromia, Ethiopia, using cross sectional data collected from randomly selected 120 sample households during year 2016 production season. Descriptive statistics and multiple linear regression models were employed for data analysis. Descriptive statistics stated that of the sample households, 71 households were found to be food secured whereas the remaining 49 household were food unsecured. Comparison of female headed and male headed dairy farming households indicated that 46.7 percent’s of female headed and 12.5 percent’s of male headed households were secured. The logistic regression result showed that female headed dairy farming participation was significantly influenced by education of household head, extension contact, cultivated land area, availability of supplementary feeds and access to market information. The impact estimation result showed that female headed have got increment in farm household’s food security status nearly by 66% than male headed households. The regression estimated coefficients indicated that dairy cattle benefits is significantly influenced by; education, access to vaccination, extension service, market information, cultivated area, milk sold on farm and fodder supplement were significant variables which affect the dairy cattle income in the study area. Therefore, policy makers should give due emphasis to the aforementioned variables to increase dairy farming benefits and improve the livelihood of rural households.