LIVELIHOOD OPTIONS AND FOOD INSECURITY IN MARGINAL AND SEMI ARID AREAS OF SAME DISTRICT, TANZANIA

Abstract

In semi-arid areas of Tanzania, communities face problems of food insecurity, but little is known about food insecurity and coping strategies in the semi-arid areas. This paper aims to identifying livelihood options and the most common type of food insecurity in the study area, levels of the most common type of food insecurity, and coping strategies underlying the food insecurity as well as socio-economic factors underlying effectiveness of the key coping strategy. The study was carried out in four villages namely Njoro, Ishinde, Mabilioni and Saweni located in Same district. Data was collected using Participatory Rural Appraisal techniques, discussion with key informants, structured questionnaire and participant observation. Qualitative data were analyzed using content analysis technique while descriptive and inferential statistical analyses were employed to analyze quantitative data. Both chronic and seasonal food insecurity occurs in the study area, whereby chronic food insecurity seems to be the most common type occurring among households. Three levels of household chronic food insecurity exists in the study area namely severe food insecurity, moderate food insecurity and mild food insecurity. The common coping strategies in order of importance were: casual labour, petty business, remittances, and temporary migration. Casual labour was found to be key coping strategy in the study area. Age of the household head and family size significantly enabled effectiveness of casual labour while sex of the household head significantly constrained effectiveness of casual labour as a key coping strategy against food insecurity. The study concludes that in the semi arid areas coupled with the vagaries of weather households, especially the poor continuously depend more on non-natural resource based copping strategies as opposed to the general understanding that rural households draw their livelihood from faming and natural resources surrounding them. The study recommends use of different interventions to arrest the food insecurities but more non-natural resources based strategies should be used in order to improve household food security such include establishment of small scale agro-industries and provision of other off-farm income opportunities for poor households and the need for considering household’s socioeconomic characteristics in food security management programs.