Poverty is one of the major causes of food insecurity in Tanzania where the prevalence of income poverty is still high. Poverty remains overwhelmingly in rural areas where 87 percent of the population lives and is highest among households who depend on agriculture. Increased weather variability and changing patterns is another major challenge to agricultural production and food security. Climate change and environmental degradation have largely hindered crop and livestock production. Competition for scarce natural resources has also led to conflict between and among pastoralist and farming communities. Dry areas of the country are particularly prone to shocks from economic downturns due to crop and livestock losses caused by natural hazards such as floods, drought, and outbreaks of diseases and pests of animals and plants. Other shocks and risks include structural stressors, including weak institutions and local governance, very poor physical and economic infrastructure and fragmented markets.

Generally, food insecurity in the country can be described in regards to food availability, accessibility and utilization;

Food availability: The major factors affecting are low production due to low productivity of land, labor and other production inputs, high incidences of crop and livestock pests and diseases, inadequate processing, storage and marketing infrastructure. This is caused mainly by inadequate finance to obtain productivity enhancing inputs or capital, limited availability of support services and appropriate technologies. Other factors affecting food availability include high pre and post-harvest losses due to pests, diseases and climatic conditions. Pre-harvest losses account for over 30% of all crop losses in the country. It is estimated that post-harvest losses range from 30%-40% for cereal grains and legumes, up to 45 % for roots and tubers and 40% - 80% for fresh vegetables and fruits. In addition, inappropriate food management at household level diminishes food stocks available for consumption.

Food accessibility: In good years when food production is not impacted, food insecurity becomes mainly a problem of distribution of the available food nationally as well as at household level. The country’s food production is mainly concentrated in the southern highland regions and peripheral areas of the country, while the traditional food deficit areas are located mostly in the central corridor and parts of northern areas. High transportation cost lead to high distribution costs which in turn are reflected in high prices of food in deficit areas and therefore affecting access to food by low income rural as well as urban populations. Poverty which is mainly due to inadequate employment and lack of income generating activities lead to low purchasing power and hence affect access to food.

Food utilization: Proper utilization of food is still lacking in the country mainly due to low household knowledge on nutrition, food storage and processing techniques. About 38% of the children in Tanzania suffer from chronic protein energy malnutrition (stunting). Underweight and wasting in children is 30% and 3% respectively. In adults, the prevalence of underweight Body Mass Index (BMI) less than 18 is about 12% in women and about 10% of the adult population in urban areas is obese. The prevalence of vitamin A deficiency is about 30% and that of anemia is about 32% for the adult population, 66% for children and 80% for pregnant women. Iodine deficiency also affects 25% of the population.

One of the major goals of the Organization (OCE) is to help improve food security in the country by engaging the communities to tackle problems associated with food availability, accessibility and utilization. The Organization envisions various pragrammes in regards to improving food security including:

Helping the agriculture dependent communities, particularly in vulnerable ecosystems, to improve their resilience to climate change impacts and enhance their capacity to respond to climate and environmental impacts.

• Promote the use of locally available resources and technologies to improve agricultural production and to reduce pre-harvest and post-harvest losses of due to pests, diseases and environmental conditions.

• To promotes other environmentally friendly income generating activities e.g. Beekeeping in order to reduce over dependence on agriculture and reduce over-exploitation of forests and other natural resources. This can improve household income and increase the purchasing power and therefore food accessibility especially in rural communities.

• Promote effective food utilization by disseminating knowledge on the importance of proper food storage and processing, cheap and locally available options for food storage and processing, nutrition and proper child care.

• Advocate for policy and market reforms which will improve availability and affordability of capital and agricultural inputs for small scale agricultural communities as well as easy accessibility of food in the local market.