Effect of policy interventions on food security in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia

Several interventions have been implemented to tackle the problems of food security and its driving forces in Tigray, Northern Ethiopia. This study attempts to investigate the effectiveness of government policy interventions addressed in improving food security and environmental degradation. Food security both at the regional and district level was determined by computing food balance Sheet for the period of 2000-2008. An empirical analysis based on a logit model is also used to analyze household level food security status; and effect of government interventions addressed to recover vegetation was investigated by employing multi-temporal NDVI images. The results of the logistics regression show that government policy interventions, such as water harvesting schemes, employment generation schemes and technology adoption significantly contribute to a higher likelihood of household food security status. The finding of the food balance sheet reveals that food self-sufficiency has improved both at the regional and district level and the multi-temporal analysis of vegetation change confirm that positive changes have been realized in rehabilitating the degraded environment over the past periods, indicating the importance of government strategy of area enclosures for the restoration of vegetation in the degraded land areas. The study suggests that the influence of governmental instruments on the interplay of social and natural phenomena is of importance for food security