Abstract:
The study was about to assess the contribution of irrigation scheme on communities
surrounding Rungwe Mpya in enhancing households' food security. The specific
objectives were to examine the households' food security status; establish the influence
of irrigation scheme on households' food security and identify major determinants of
households' food security in the study area. A multi- stage stratified sampling procedure
was used to select 152 sample households from both irrigation users and non-users living
within the targeted area. A combination of quantitative analysis like descriptive statistics,
Household Food Balance Model, binary logit model and qualitative study were used to
reach at reliable results by using data gathered from both primary and secondary sources.
The survey result revealed that 29 % of sample households were food insecure and 71 %
food secure. There was huge gap in food calorie availability ranging from 788- 8405Kca
in the study area. Food insecure households were found to have an average of 24% food
gap in terms of dietary energy, which is needed to fulfil the national minimum
requirements. The average per capita calorie supply for irrigation users was found
substantially increased by 889 Kcal, which is about 42 % percent of the minimum
requirement of food calorie requires by an individual. The use of SSI was found
significantly related to household food security situation in provision of household
dietary energy and taking a lion share in the proportion of study areas major consumable
from food crops production. The logit model revealed that household size, educational
status of household head, cultivated land size, engagement in nonfarming, access to
irrigation and credit service were found significant determinants. SSI is one of the viable
solutions to household food supplement and hence promoting of smallholders to produce
directly consumable food grains is advantageous. It is important to address those food
security determinants and farmers' views in planning and executing of development
policies and programs by all stakeholders to tackle the problem of household food
insecurity in the study area. Thus, the concemed development partners being
governmental or non-governmental should join hands to promote the development of
irrigation schemes
