Participatory Impact Assessment of Food Securing Upgrading Strategies in Rural Tanzania

L. E. A. Hernandez, F. Graef and H. J. König ()
Additional contact information
L. E. A. Hernandez: Humboldt University of Berlin
F. Graef: Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)
H. J. König: Leibniz Centre for Agricultural Landscape Research (ZALF)

Systemic Practice and Action Research, 2019, vol. 32, issue 6, No 6, 687-706

Abstract: Abstract Subsistence farmers in sub-Saharan Africa aim for strategies to enhance their food security. Implementing upgrading strategies (UPS) must be assessed prior to and during implementation. The objective of this paper was to analyze and compare ex-ante and mid-term assessments of two food-securing UPS (rainwater harvesting and micro fertilization, improved cooking stoves) conducted with local stakeholders from four rural villages in Tanzania. We utilized locally developed food security criteria developed under the Framework of Participatory Impact Assessment (FoPIA). Focus group discussions were used to anticipate (ex-ante) and reflect (mid-term evaluation) the likely effects of selected UPS. Overall, the stakeholders’ assessment scores declined from the ex-ante to the mid-term assessment; in particular, the economic criteria decreased, followed by the social criteria. Four critical factors were identified: 1) rainfall-related problems; 2) workload; 3) managerial performance; and 4) social conflicts. Assessment differences were found within the villages, between regions and across villages. Combining both the assessment scores and the farmers’ explanations during assessments provides the key to optimizing the food-securing potential of UPS.

Keywords: Food security; Rural development; Food value chains; Upgrading strategies; Stakeholder participation (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s11213-019-09481-0 Abstract (text/html)
Access to the full text of the articles in this series is restricted.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:syspar:v:32:y:2019:i:6:d:10.1007_s11213-019-09481-0

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer.com/journal/11213

DOI: 10.1007/s11213-019-09481-0

Access Statistics for this article

Systemic Practice and Action Research is currently edited by Robert Flood

More articles in Systemic Practice and Action Research from Springer
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().