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.
