Entitlement to Food Security Approach Explaining Food Security in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania More than Other Theories

Data for this paper were collected in Mbeya and Makete Districts, Tanzania, in 2012 from 233 households with the specific objectives to determine proportions of food secure and food insecure households; rank some indicators of entitlements and those of Malthusians, Anti-Malthusians and Woldemeskel’s contentions with regard to their relationship with food security; and determine the impact of the above indicators on dietary energy consumed per adult equivalent per day, which was the dependent variable. The independent variables were household size, number of agricultural technologies used, number of cattle owned, income from non-agricultural activities, monetary values of household assets, farmer group membership, years of schooling of household head and kilograms of fertilizer used. The dependent variable was regressed on the eight independent variables to find the impact of each of them on it. Entitlement to food security in terms numbers of cattle owned, farmers’ group membership and non-agricultural activities were found to be more important factors enhancing food security. Addressing these factors could improve food security in the study area. It is recommended that the government and policy makers should support farmers in other income generating activities besides agriculture to increase their purchasing power for higher food security.