Assessment Of The Effectivenes And Sustainability Of Household Food Insecurity Coping Strategies In Chamwino District Dodoma Region

ABSTRACT

Household food security is an important development issue. However, food

insecurity still persists in many parts of Tanzania due to a number of factors.

When people are faced with food shortage, they develop mechanisms to cope

with this problem. These strategies, however, are neither effective nor

sustainable. Therefore, this study was conducted to assess the effectiveness and

sustainability of coping strategies towards food insecurity in Chamwino area in

order to suggest possible ways that could be used to increase food production in

the area as a way of reducing household food insecurity. Data was collected from

120 respondents by using questionnaires. Researcher’s diary and checklist were

used to collect information from key informants. Quantitative data were analyzed

using Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) computer software and

qualitative data were summarized and analyzed manually. Respondents were

aware of the food insecurity problem and its causes. They identified some coping

strategies which they considered to be effective; these included selling of

livestock, selling of labour, utilization of wild foods and a reduction in the

number and quantity of meals taken. However, despite the use of these coping

strategies the problem of food insecurity is still persists. It is therefore

recommended from this study that deliberate efforts to be taken by the

government and other interested parties to promote and support off-farm income

generating activities, train farmers on food processing and storage methods,

empower women financially so that they can produce more food, identify wild

food plants and conserve them, educate people not to sell their labour during peak

farm activities and advise farmers to practice de-stocking of their animals so that

they can sell them during period of good prices. Also, the growing of drought

resistant crops should be encouraged