Abstract
Incidences of food shortage and poverty are highly reported on Africa specifically sub-Saharan part, despite having a large number of the population engaging in agriculture residing in the rural area. Different scholars have managed to associate food security which involves food availability, food access, food utilization and stability at the household level with various factors. The study takes a similar root in pinning down factors related to the food shortage in Singida. Taking into account socio-economic characteristics of household in analysis, it is indicated that food shortage in Singida area is more pronounced during farming season, that is November to March and it is associated with gender, marital status, education level, occupation and place of residence of the household head. Meanwhile, age of head of household, total manpower in the household, amount of maize harvested, the use of fertilizer, farm size and household expenditure on food had no significant effect in determining food shortage at the household level. Since education has shown a significant positive effect of not having food shortage, and community in Singida depends much on rain-fed agriculture system, the problem of food shortage may be tackled through extension services toward creating awareness on improved agriculture practice for more farm yield given the small piece of land available, and improvement in storage mechanism.
Highlights
Food shortage exists in a given region if, food supplies fall short of existing food demand for provision of energy and nutrients to a given population, and this may occur unevenly within a given region, while a certain proportion of population in a region may be experiencing hunger from limited access to adequate food, others may be enjoying access to plenty of food existing [1]
Emmanuel Simon Mwang’onda et al.: Predictors of Household Food Sufficiency in Singida Municipality, Tanzania years), marital status, number of years spent in schooling, household size, farming as a major economic activities, residency status, livestock keeping, number of cattle kept, amount of maize harvested in the last year, number of chicken, amount of sorghum harvested in last year, farm size owned, participating in an off-farm activity, household annual estimated cost for food and household annual income (00,000 Tshs)
It was reported that various factors are responsible for food shortage at household level in Singida municipality including; residence area, sex of the head of household, marital status, years spent in schooling, household size, farming as a major economic activity, livestock keeping as a major economic activity, number of cattle kept, number of chicken, amount of money spent in buying food, amount of household savings and household annual income
Summary
Food shortage exists in a given region if, food supplies fall short of existing food demand for provision of energy and nutrients to a given population, and this may occur unevenly within a given region, while a certain proportion of population in a region may be experiencing hunger from limited access to adequate food, others may be enjoying access to plenty of food existing [1]. Incidences of food shortage and poverty are frequently reported sub-Saharan Africa, despite having the large number of population engaging in agriculture residing in a rural area [2,3]. The Maputo declaration in 2003, vividly shows that everyone agrees that if the agricultural sector is well managed, attainment of food security, poverty reduction and overall wellbeing of the nation will be highly possible [4]. Other factors include; weather variations whereby El Niño and drought having been reported in some regions, limited fiscal space and the declining power of domestic currency that erode the capacity of a country to import food to sustain the life of its population [5]
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