The Contribution Of Special Program On Food Security In Kilosa District, Tanzania

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study was to investigate the contribution of Special Program for

Food Security (SPFS) introduced by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO)

from 1996 and launched in Tanzania 1998. SPFS aimed at increasing food security

at household level through agriculture modernization. However, the contribution of

the programme on household food security was not determined in recent years.

Hence this study sought to; analyze community perception and attitude towards the

program relevance to food security, the extent of farmer’s participation in SPFS and

to assess household food security status before and after SPFS. Questionnaires with

close and open ended questions were administered to 120 respondents selected

randomly from three villages namely Chanzulu, Kilangali and Msolwa. A crosssectional

research design was adopted while purposive sampling technique was used

to select the region and the districts. Simple random sampling procedure was used to

select wards, villages and heads of households. The quantitative data were analyzed

using the SPSS computer software while qualitative analysis was analyzed by

functional content analysis. The study found changes in food security before and

after the program which attributed to the project and other factor like house hold

size. Also it found positive attitude and perception towards challenges identified

include; increasing of rice yield before and after the programme at significant level

at 0.05 and number of months with food shortage has been reduced from 4 months

to 2 months.