The contribution of special program on food security

The purpose of this study was to investigate the contribution of Special Program for Food Security (SPFS) introduced by Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) from 1996 and launched in Tanzania 1998. SPFS aimed at increasing food security at household level through agriculture modernization. However, the contribution of the programme on household food security was not determined in recent years. Hence this study sought to; analyze community perception and attitude towards the program relevance to food security, the extent of farmer’s participation in SPFS and to assess household food security status before and after SPFS. Questionnaires with close and open ended questions were administered to 120 respondents selected randomly from three villages namely Chanzulu, Kilangali and Msolwa. A cross- sectional research design was adopted while purposive sampling technique was used to select the region and the districts. Simple random sampling procedure was used to select wards, villages and heads of households. The quantitative data were analyzed using the SPSS computer software while qualitative analysis was analyzed by functional content analysis. The study found changes in food security before and after the program which attributed to the project and other factor like house hold size. Also it found positive attitude and perception towards challenges identified include; increasing of rice yield before and after the programme at significant level at 0.05 and number of months with food shortage has been reduced from 4 months to 2 months.Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security (MAFSC