Browsing by Author "Kayunze, K. A."

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    Food status and income levels among dairy and non-dairy farmers in Chunya district, Tanzania
    (Sokoine University of Agriculture, 2001) Kayunze, K. A.; Urassa, J. K.; Mwakalobo, A. B. S.
    In order to reveal the role of dairy farming in poverty alleviation and food security improvement, a research was conducted in 11 villages of Chunya District in December 2000 among 30 dairy farmers and 30 non-dairy farmers. Their income from four sources of non-agricultural, agricultural, livestock and rental activities were compared with a poverty line of Tsh 130,128/= per adult equivalent per year. Their grains harvest in the crop season 1999/2000 were compared with three 90-kg bags of grains per adult equivalent per year. The objectives were to determine the number of food insecure households on the basis of three bags of grains for an adult person per year and income per adult equivalent from four sources. Another objective was to compare food status and income between dairy and non-dairy farmers. Average income among dairy farmers was Tsh 295,858/= while that among non-dairy farmers was Tsh 176,804/= per adult equivalent per year. Only 23.3% of dairy farmers had income below the poverty line while 50% of non-dairy farmers had income below the poverty line. The average of 90-kg bags among dairy farmers was 2.4 and 2.5 per adult equivalent among non-dairy farmers. Based on the grains, 76.7% dairy farmers were food insecure while among non-dairy farmers food insecure households were 83.3%. A t-test to compare the income between the two groups gave significant differences at 5% (p= 0.026). However, the food status between them did not differ significantly (p = 0.427). It is concluded that dairy farming is very effective for poverty reduction. Therefore, development agencies, including government departments, NGOs, religious groups and donors are urged to help poor people reduce poverty by helping them keep dairy cattle. This can be done by establishing heifer in trust schemes, that is "kopa ng'ombe lipa ng'ombe", like the Japanese Counterpart for Food Aid (JCFFA) is doing in Chunya District: