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Background: Understanding the production trend of the major food crops is an important step for any nation that
evaluates her agricultural progress. This evaluation should mostly focus on the yields per unit area. So far, it can also
earmark the expansion of farms to determine the general yields trend. The main objective of this paper is to assess the
production trend of the major food crops and their efficacy to food security in Tanzania. This is particular important
because for the past three decades, the country has failed to control food security (especially food availability and
accessibility).
Results: Here, crop data from 1980 to 2015 were gathered from the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fishery
(MALF), and in the respective regions. In some incidences, the regional data were averaged to elicit their preciseness.
To determine the objectivity of this study, agricultural policy, programs, and plans from MALF were reviewed for
similar purpose. Mostly, the Mann-Kendal Test and Microsoft Excel were used for data analyses. The results show that
the production of the total yields had a positive trend (i.e., growing at R2 = 0.4 and 0.8), while that of the yields (ton/ha)
had a negative trend (i.e., declining at R2 = 0.02 and 0.3). It was further realized that the total yields mostly boomed due
to farm expansion.
Conclusions: Despite the efforts from various agricultural stakeholders, the country has not yet achieved a sustainable
crop yield and food security. Explicitly, this situation has been affecting peoples’ livelihoods, and other sectors
either directly or indirectly. Therefore, there is a need to improve the production strategies and approaches (i.e., more
especially technology and marketing) to limit this problem. |
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