Effects of using post-harvest management technologies on household food security in Dodoma Region, Tanzania

Deodata Vicent Mtenga; Justus Vincent Nsenga; Kim Abel Kayunze

doi:10.51867/AQSSR.2.2.38

Authors

Deodata Vicent Mtenga PhD Student at Sokoine University of Agriculture, University of Dodoma, Tanzania Author https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3816-2083
Justus Vincent Nsenga Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania Author https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6893-8375
Kim Abel Kayunze Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania Author https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3920-5698

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51867/AQSSR.2.2.38

Keywords:

Grains, Household Food Security, HFIAS, Post-Harvest Management Technologies

Abstract

In Dodoma Region, Tanzania, the adoption of grain post-harvest management technologies remains low despite their importance for food security. This study, conducted in Kongwa and Chemba Districts between December 2022 and March 2023, analyses effects of using grain post-harvest management technologies and household food security. The specific objectives were to determine household food security status, analyse postharvest management technologies used for maize and sorghum, compare household food security status based on grain post-harvest management technologies used, and determine effects of grain post-harvest technologies and other factors on chances of being food secure. Data were collected from 384 households using a questionnaire, a key informant interview guide, and a guide for focus group discussions. They analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics software to compute descriptive and inferential statistics. Results showed that 52.1% of households were food insecure based on grain consumption, and 43.5% were food insecure based on the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS). Use of improved post-harvest technologies varied across activities, but no significant food security differences were found between users and non-users of improved postharvest technologies. However, food security was significantly different between households whose heads had different levels of education, between households which had different farm sizes, and between smaller and larger households. Binary logistic regression results showed mixed results that household size had significant negative effect on the chances of being food secure, based on amounts of grains consumed but that it had insignificant positive effect on the chances of being food secure, based on HFIAS. Tractor use and group membership had positive significant positive effects on the chances of being food secure, based on amounts of grains consumed. Processing grains and years of schooling had significant positive effects on the chances of being food secure, based on HFIAS. It is concluded that working on the variables that had significant negative effects on the chances of being food secure—household size, age of household head, and land ownership could help increase chances of smallholder farmers being food secure. Such chances could also be increased by keeping up the variables that had significant positive effects on the chances of being food secure—tractor use, being members of farmer groups, improved grain processing means, and education (formal and non-formal). It is recommended to Kongwa and Chemba Districts to promote the use of postharvest technologies analysed and others that are relevant so that more farmers can use them, thereby improving food security. Farming households should join farmer groups, and the agricultural extension service should increase provision of education to farmers on why and how to use the technologies and collaborate with suppliers of the technologies so that they could supply them at more reasonable prices.

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