Contributions of Small Scale Paddy Irrigation Schemes to Household Food Security in Mvomero District, Tanzania

Abstract

The Agricultural and Livestock Policy of Tanzania gives high priority to the promotion offood sufficiency and security through irrigated agriculture. The objective of this study was to assess the contributions of small scale irrigated rice production to household ' sfood security in Mvomero District; specifically on household ' s food security status, theextent to which small scale irrigated rice production contributes to household ' s foodsecurity and ways to improve sustainability of household ' s food security situation inthe study area. The study employed cross-sectional research design in two villagesnamely Sungaji and Mkingo in Mvomero District. Demographic characteristics andassets of households as well as agricultural production were collected using structuredquestionnaires from 55 irrigation scheme users. A systematic random samplingtechnique were used to obtain usersof irrigation schemes from the Village RegistryBook (VRB) in the village and   sampling process useda skip interval at every 8household using random number table repeatedly. However, in order to getpopulation sample within each village, probability proportional to size (PPS) wasapplied.Descriptive statistics methods were applied to analyze the data and todetermine the association of the variables among irrigation scheme users in the studyarea. The findings indicates that 32 percent of the respondent acknowledged thatirrigation schemes have increased agricultural production per unit area while almost56.4 percent of the rice produced were served for food. However, monthly incomeweresignificantly correlated with the number of meals taken per day at p>0.041. Levelof education and household size indicated a significant association with the number ofmeals per taken per day at p< 0.000 and p<0.002 respectively. On the basis of thefindings, it is recommended that careful action is needed to improve irrigationinfrastructure, extension services to farmers to increase productivity, market for theirproduce as well as access to loans/credit. Collaboration with all agriculturestakeholders is needed so as to improve the productivity to enhance household foodsecurity and community livelihood at large.Key words: Food security, irrigation scheme, livelihood, paddy th