Contribution of Maize Technology to Household Food Security

Maize is Ethiopia s largest cereal commodity in terms of total production, acreage and farming households involved. Maize had good track records in getting promising technological options derived from the research and development work through the national agricultural research system. Impact of maize technology on rural household food security situation and it s over all characteristics of maize production in the study region was not assessed before. The main objective of this paper was to assess the features of improved maize production and its contribution to household food security in two rural communities who are different in resource endowment in Assosa woreda. 120 sampled households from four kebeles were included in the sampling frame. The study indicates that Maize productivity on average was double in households who had used improved maize compared with non-users. Food secured households are higher among maize technology users compared with non-maize technology.

Autorentext

Seyoum Mengist has BSc in Agricultural Extension from Haramaya University and M.Sc. in Development Studies specialized with food security studies from Addis Ababa University. Previously he was lecturer in Maichew Agricultural College and Researchers for Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research.

Klappentext

Maize is Ethiopia's largest cereal commodity in terms of total production, acreage and farming households involved. Maize had good track records in getting promising technological options derived from the research and development work through the national agricultural research system. Impact of maize technology on rural household food security situation and it's over all characteristics of maize production in the study region was not assessed before. The main objective of this paper was to assess the features of improved maize production and its contribution to household food security in two rural communities who are different in resource endowment in Assosa woreda. 120 sampled households from four kebeles were included in the sampling frame. The study indicates that Maize productivity on average was double in households' who had used improved maize compared with non-users. Food secured households' are higher among maize technology users compared with non-maize technology.