Coping Strategies and Household Resilience to food insecurity in Chamwino and Manyoni Districts, Tanzania

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN FULFILMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY OF SOKOINE UNIVERSITY OF AGRICULTURE. MOROGORO, TANZANIA

Tanzania’s agricultural system is rain-dependent and highly susceptible to climatic shocks, particularly in the semi-arid areas of Central Tanzania. Despite the government’s efforts to improve agricultural production, food insecurity has persisted. Thus, this study investigated coping strategies and household resilience to food insecurity in Chamwino and Manyoni districts in Tanzania. The objectives were to determine the perception of farmers on the extent of food insecurity, to analyze socio-economic factors that determine households’ food insecurity status, to examine the major food insecurity coping strategies employed by households in ensuring food security and analyze the factors that determine households’ resilience to food insecurity in the study area. Data were collected from 200 household heads and selected key informants from five villages in Chamwino and Manyoni districts using interview schedule, researcher’s diary and a checklist. Quantitative data were mainly analyzed by descriptive statistics while qualitative data were summarized along the main study questions. The empirical analysis highlighted the critical role of socio-economic characteristics in households’ food insecurity, especially that households who owned livestock and cell phones were less food insecure than other households. On the other hand, the major types of food insecurity coping strategies employed included food aid, crop diversification, seasonal migration, casual labour, and off-farm activities. However, the coping strategies were not sufficient to minimize food insecurity problem in the study area. The descriptive analyses confirmed the validity of the selected components which were used to measure relative household resilience to food insecurity. It was thus recommended that government’s interventions in reducing food insecurity in the study area should be based on various food insecurity related research outputs. Similarly, considering the diversity of coping strategies employed in the study area, local government should use broad based food insecurity intervention programmes to support beneficial coping strategies that support resilience. Communities at household level should make efforts to actively support components that protect and buffer the natural resilience of households