Tumaini, Ubaldus J.; Msuya, John M.
Description:
Achieving food access security continues to be a challenge in Tanzania. In order to
formulate effective policies for reaching this goal, a thorough understanding of the
location and constraints to food access security is needed. The study on which the
manuscript is based assessed the extent to which these constraints varied along the urbanrural continuum in Morogoro and Iringa, Tanzania. Also, the study assessed the influence of these constraints on households’ food access security. A cross-sectional research design was employed whereby 279 households were randomly selected using a multistage sampling procedure. A structured questionnaire was used to collect primary data, which were analysed both descriptively and inferentially. The study results reveal great variations in constraints to household food access security along the continuum.
In addition, there was a negative significant relationship between household food access
52 security and variables such as low income (β = -1.358; p ≤ 0.001), drought (β = -1.026;
p ≤ 0.01), limited market access (β = -0.960; p ≤ 0.05), and soil infertility (β = -0.950;
p ≤ 0.05). It is concluded that constraints to household food access security vary
significantly along the continuum. Moreover, household food access security is
essentially affected by low income, drought, limited market access, and soil infertility.
Therefore, coordinated efforts from all sectors of the economy are needed to overcome
these constraints and hence improve household food access security.