An assessment of the contribution of tree farming to household food security a case of Kilolo district, Tanzania

An assessment of the contribution of tree farming on household food security was carried out at Kidabaga and Bomalang’ombe villages. A cross-sectional research design involving purposive and random sampling was used in selecting villages and households respectively. Secondary data review and Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) including Focus Group Discussions (FGDs), Key Informant Interviews (KIIs), field observations, and household interviews were used for data collection. It was observed that the majority of farmers in the study area are nowadays engaged in tree farming. The major reasons for participating in tree farming were for improved income and poverty reduction strategies. The contribution of tree farming to households income was significant, such that, Chi square test revealed significant relationship between increasing farm size in tree cultivation and consequent income increase, meanwhile, depicted decreasing trend in food production and income. This study concluded that tree farming has remarkable household income increase compared to food crops, an aspect which is leaving behind more challenges such as shrinking cropland that may lead to food insecurity in future. Therefore this study suggests that, some incentives such as a better market search for food crops products, providing quality seeds/seedlings and fast growing trees could be introduced. Trees should be planted in places which do not support food crop growing in order to solve the problem of food shortage which is expected in the future due to diverting a lot of land for tree farming rather than producing food crops. Further research to explore soil characteristics which support variety food crops to grow in that area in order to sustain food security is required.