Analysis of household food access in tobacco growing regions of Zimbabwe

Abstract

According to TIMB (2019), it have been noted that there is a continuous increase in the number of new smallholder tobacco growers over the past years. At the same time they are reports of reduction in the production of food crops. This research sought to analysis the household food access in tobacco growing regions of Zimbabwe. This study analysed household food access as measured by HFIAS in Hurungwe district. It was motivated by the fact that household food insecurity in Hurungwe is at 28% (moderate hunger score) against a national average of 23% according to ZimVac, 2020. This is comparatively higher for an area that has ideal agro-ecological conditions for food crop production. A cross-sectional survey of 150 households was conducted in Tengwe, Magunje and Kazangarare. Initially, stratified random sampling was used to identify specific farmer category. Thereafter, purposive sampling was used to select and come up with the smallholder farmers’ households to sample. The primary data was obtained through the use of a survey questionnaire, interviews and observations, while the secondary data was extracted from journals, newspapers and library sources. The mixed method approach was adopted to cover both qualitative and quantitative data analysis. The quantitative data were analysed in SPSS V22 and MS Excel environments to produce tables and graphs. Multiple linear regression was used to determine the factors that influence food access at household level. The research study was able to determine the food access level of all the households that participated in the survey using the HFIAS score sheet. The results shows a significant variation in food access among the tobacco and non-tobacco growing households in the tobacco growing regions of Zimbabwe. The researcher concluded that 59.3% of the small holder farmers were food secure whilst 40.7% of the sample were not food secure. In the tobacco farming category about 74% were found to be food secure. Seventy-six percent of the respondents commented that tobacco production was their most profitable enterprise. The following factors were found to significantly affect household food access in the tobacco growing regions of Zimbabwe; farming experience, gender, age of the family head, household size, types of farming activities (Tobacco production), annual household income, size of arable land, farm size and duration of food programme. The paper recommends an increase in the establishment of synergy relationships between Government, NGO`s and Private organisations in order to provide infrastructural development especially dams, irrigation schemes, community boreholes, improved road networks and affordable food crop inputs amongst other things. Keywords: Food security and small holder farmer.