Consumption Uncertainty Reduction Among Sweet Potato Smallholder Farmers In Tanzania

A large number of Tanzanians are employed in agricultural sector which is highly subsistence.Sweet potato,as one of major food crops cultivated in Tanzania,is highly drought resistant and nutritionally advantageous compared to other food crops.However,hunger and starvation is experienced in some drought prone regions of the country.Apart from sweet potato,farmers also grow other crops through inter-cropping.The study aimed at analyzing food crop production and marketing,evaluating food poverty and estimating food consumption function among farmers.Through these objectives,the study managed to answer research questions of crop productivity,farmers' alternative income sources,and elasticity of farmers'consumption function.Food consumption status is analyzed to uncover food poverty among farmers.It is preceded by crop production and marketing analysis to uncover challenges thereby providing possible solutions to improve crop production as a way of reducing consumption uncertainty.Food consumption status analysis is followed by consumption function analysis under permanent income hypothesis to ascertain farmers' consumption responsiveness towards income changes.It is the only study that uses typical cross sectional data to analyze permanent income hypothesis among farmers in Tanzania.Using a survey of 554 farmers,from Kishapu and Mvomero districts,the study uncovered low crop productivity which is partly due to pests,insects,and birds attack as well as other production challenges.Nevertheless,low crop price is a highly pronounced crop selling difficult which discourages farmers' investment in farming.As a matter of facts,farmers grow crops for food consumption intention.But due to low crop productivity,a large number of farmers consume below standard in both pre-and post-harvest periods.Although,the number of farmers consuming below standard is significantly reduced in the post-harvest period indicating the importance of crop production improvement on consumption uncertainty reduction,there is still more than half consuming below standard in post-harvest period.Consuming food below standard even in the post-harvest period confirms that farmers live under food consumption uncertainty.Consumption function is also inelastic,stressing that farmers in the study area undertake precautionary savings to sustain their food consumption.Government provision of agricultural subsidies,promotion of large scale farming to augment small scale farming,and investment in rural to urban connectivity for farmers' market access,can improve crop production and reduce consumption uncertainty among farmers.Nevertheless,food programs at schools can easily reduce starvation among school children.Future studies,however,should consider post-harvest income to capture the inter-temporal aspect of permanent income hypothesis.The development of financial instruments can enable credit access for crop production improvement among farmers.