Does enset (Ensete Ventricosum) production upshot smallholder farmers food security and income: Evidence from Dedo Woreda, Jimma zone, Ethiopia

Background: Enhancing agricultural production to rural households improves their food security and livelihoods. Accordingly, Enset is the most important traditional staple and co-staple food crop contributing to food security and rural livelihoods for more than 25% of people in Ethiopia. But there is limited knowledge on the impacts of this enset production on rural household food security and annual income in the study area. This study aims at generating location-specific data on the impacts of enset production on household income and food security in Dedo Woreda, south-western Ethiopia. A multistage sampling procedure was employed to select 319 household heads. Data was collected using the interview schedule, focus group discussion, and key informant interview. Both descriptive and econometric data analysis techniques were used. Household calorie acquisition was used to identify food security status of the households and income of the household was computed from the sum of on-farm income, off/non-farm income and remittance. Results: The result showed that education level, family size, land size, livestock holding, frequency of extension contact, and farming experience of the households influence enset production positively in the study area. The food security status shows that majority of the households were food secure. The propensity score matching result shows that enset production has a positive and significant impact on the household calorie intake and annual income. Conclusion: Increasing enset production and productivity needs to be given special priority in production scaling out programs. Further, to enhance and sustain the positive impact of enset production in the study area it will be good if policymakers and local government focus on encouraging enset production and productivity to improve rural households’ food insecurity.