Abstract
Food insecurity is an integral part of poverty in Ethiopia owing to agricultural production to be less able to adapt to climate change. The main objective of the study is to evaluate the status of food availability in the face of climate change and variability in Choke Mountain Watersheds, Central Ethiopia. For this purpose structured household questionnaire, Key Informant Interview, Group discussion and field observation were used to generate both qualitative and quantitative data. Both purposive and non-purposive sampling techniques were employed to select each agro ecosystem and sample households. Household Food Balance Model (HFBM) was used to analyze the status of food availability. Other quantitative data was analyzed, tabulated and summarized by utilizing Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS 20). The result of HFBM revealed majority of sample households are food insecured in terms of daily calorie availability per adult equivalent and due to climate variability availability of food is not equal across all Agro Ecology System (AES). Even if the magnitude of productivity problems differ in each Agro Ecology System. Weed infestation, land degradation, dependency on single harvest, lack of farm implements are the cause of reduction of agricultural activities and productivities.
Key words: Food availability, climate change and variability, choke mountain watersheds, household food balance model (HFBM).
