The impact of hermetic storage bag supply and training on food security in Tanzania

Martin Julius Chegere (), Razack Lokina () and Agnes G. Mwakaje ()
Additional contact information
Martin Julius Chegere: University of Dar es Salaam
Razack Lokina: University of Dar es Salaam
Agnes G. Mwakaje: Mwalimu Nyerere University of Agriculture and Technology

Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, 2020, vol. 12, issue 6, No 8, 1299-1316

Abstract: Abstract Reduction of post-harvest loss (PHL) can play an important role in complementing efforts to address food security challenges. This paper used data from 390 small-scale maize farmers in Kilosa, Tanzania to analyse the impact of post-harvest management training and the supply of hermetic bags on food insecurity status in a framed field experiment setting with two treatments. In the first treatment group, farmers were trained on post-harvest management, and in the second treatment they were given the same training as the first treatment group and were, in addition, provided with hermetic bags for storing maize. Our estimations show that the interventions had an impact in reducing maize PHL and household food insecurity. The intervention combining training and supply of hermetic bags abated maize PHL by 53%, whereas the training intervention alone abated PHL by 26%. Further, the intervention combining training and supply of hermetic bags reduced the household food insecurity access scale (HFIAS) score by 30.9% while the training intervention alone reduced it by 10.8% relative to the control group. The two interventions also lowered the probability of treated households experiencing moderate or severe food insecurity, and increased the probability of households being food secure or mildly insecure relative to the control group. Notably, the intervention which combined training and supply of hermetic bags had a significantly larger impact compared to the one providing training only. These results imply that more investment should be done on interventions to reduce PHL to complement efforts to improve food security. They also point to possible affordable interventions to reduce maize PHL and the importance of supplying material support in addition to training to minimize PHL and improve food security in Tanzania.

Keywords: Post-harvest management; Training; Hermetic bags; Maize; Food security; Field experiment; Randomization inference (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: C93 Q12 Q16 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2020
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Downloads: (external link)
http://link.springer.com/10.1007/s12571-020-01052-9 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:ssefpa:v:12:y:2020:i:6:d:10.1007_s12571-020-01052-9

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.springer. ... ulture/journal/12571

DOI: 10.1007/s12571-020-01052-9

Access Statistics for this article

Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food is currently edited by R.N. Strange

More articles in Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food from Springer, The International Society for Plant Pathology
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Sonal Shukla () and Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing ().