Focus on the ONJAMA Household Food Security Paradigm

The main preoccupation of rural poor communities in Tanzania is the availability of year-round household food security to all family members. Shortages of food have become a recurring phenomenon especially in areas receiving poor rainfall. Food allocations are frequently provided to help starving families. Sporadic droughts and disregard for husbandry of drought-resistant crops are major causes of hunger. A down-to-earth household food security program, known as ONJAMA1 was introduced and carried out in Masasi district of southern Tanzania, which in practical terms was the locus of a successful locally-organized and self-reliant household food security program that received fame in the country and abroad.

Keywords: ONJAMA, Household Food Security, Masasi District, Drought, Hunger, Famine, Cassava, Legumes, Kilimo Kwanza.

This study examines the major causes, challenges and possible solutions of the sporadic situations of famine and hunger in the erstwhile Masasi district, an administrative area that comprised seven divisions, thirty wards and 196 registered villages, before being subdivided in 2006 into two autonomous districts of Masasi and Nanyumbu. According to the Regional Economic Profile (1997), Masasi formed 53 percent of Mtwara region's total area or 55 percent of the smallest district of Mtwara Mikindani. The other districts were Newala (including Tandahimba) and Mtwara Rural.

Ravaged by a dreadful drought period between 1986 and 1988 consecutively, communities in the Masasi district depended on food relief provided by government and other multilateral and charitable organizations. UNICEF's Annual Report of the Executive Board (1990) conceded that the local authorities in the district initiated an intensive and extensive programme popularly known as ONJAMA, for eradicating hunger that helped the study area turn into a new green belt with limited external support. Community food production was mobilized and ten thousands of acres of land were put under production of cassava, sorghum and legumes. "Many children and adults2 had enough food to eat for the first time in three years". This success was largely conditioned by a synergy of general positive acceptance of the rural poor to implement the objectives and goals of the programme through a vigorous upsurge of the process of social mobilization.

Considering its geographical location and engulfed mostly in a leeward position the study area received irregular poor rains. The occurrences of drought were frequent phenomena that caused instances of hunger and famines. The period between 1986 and 1988

1 ONJAMA stands for "Ondoa Njaa Masasi" or simply "Eradication of Hunger in Masasi district;" a household food security program that transformed primitive agricultural practice in the area qualitatively. Surpluses of cassava and legumes increased the country's exports and redressed the problem of domestic food deficit.

2 Emphasis in italics is of the author.

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was extremely critical. Rains failed miserably. Yet not scared by the severity of drought, peasant farmers maintained the status quo of growing cereal crops like maize and paddy that did not withstand aridity. During that period, about 66,815.4 acres of land were put under cereal production. But 44,770.78 acres were completely ravaged by drought. Following this harrowing situation of acute food shortage, the whole district was plunged into an extensive quagmire of a prolonged famine.

The District Technical Report further elaborates that in 120 registered villages the food situation was alarmingly serious. About 146,401 people were on the brink of starvation. The government took immediate rescue measures by providing food relief rations to almost the whole district population under the arrangement of food for work. Children, octogenarians, disabled, and other vulnerable groups were provided with free food rations. In total, about 5,448 tons of maize, 611 tons of beans and 610 tons of dried cassava were distributed by the government and organizations like the USAID, World Food Programme and the Catholic Church.

The drought pattern in the study area was cyclical as traced from the colonial period in 1945 when frequent food shortages occurred especially in the dry leeward areas of Mchauru, Chiungutwa, Nanyumbu and Nakopi divisions. The colonial administration enforced a punitive decree for forceful husbandry of drought tolerant crops, cassava in particular. Offenders were inhumanly mistreated. Some of them were flogged in public mercilessly. This colonial order was generally unpopular and thus bitterly resented.

During post-independence period peasant farmers resumed the extensive production of cereal crops notwithstanding drought ravages that occurred frequently. Outmoded crop husbandry systems exacerbated the problem of hunger due to poor yields obtained annually. Despite the incidences of drought calamities and repeated food shortages, the district population continued to uphold the idiosyncratic, traditional rituals of jando and unyago3 that accentuated the lavish use meager food reserves.

Therefore, formulation of the ONJAMA household food security programme largely helped the rural poor redress the exigencies of successive food shortages and hunger. The study made an attempt to examine correlative relationships between ONJAMA and other household food security experiences conducted in other countries: developed, emerging and developing; such as the USA, Russia, China, India, Brazil, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique and Zanzibar. A correlation was equally highlighted for uncovering a synergy between ONJAMA and the contemporary nationwide programmes of Kilimo Kwanza and SACGOT4.

REVIEW OF THE ONJAMA HOUSEHOLD FOOD SECURITY PROGRAMME

A situation of frequent food shortages that culminated in severe famines in the district was traced through historical records and proved to be a chronic factor. The research unveiled various methods of empirical data collection to determine the root causes of frequent food shortages, hunger and famine in the study area. Research assistants administered data collected by the respondents through oral interviews, observations, structured and non-structured interviews schedules, questionnaires, and documentary reviews. Basically a number of factors were observed to be root causes of the endemic problem of food shortages in Masasi district that led to the development of the ONJAMA food security programme. These factors include unreliability of climatic conditions with great variations of rainfall patterns; use of outmoded farm implements particularly the application of the primitive dwarf hoe locally

Jando 3 and Unyago arc traditional initiation rituals of diverse tribal affiliations. Informal education skills arc imparted on female and male circumcised folks in separate special camps. According to some tribal customs, circumcision of females or female genital mutilation is impermissible.

4 SACGOT means Southern Agricultural Corridor Growth of Tanzania. It is a pilot arca that will first cover Morogoro, Iringa. Mbcya, Rukwa and Ruvuma regions.

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known as ching 'ondola that inflicts maximum physical exhaustion and time waste. The other causes were late and poorly prepared farm plots, rudimentary planting method of mixing many crops in a single small farm plot, untimely weeding, minimal fertilizer application and the psychological illusion of disregarding drought resistant crops particularly cassava. Weak village leadership to enforce properly the fulfillment of the program's targets contributed much to this dichotomy between poor agricultural husbandry and intermittent food shortages.

DEFINING FOOD SECURITY

Food security means a situation of food availability and accessibility. Households are food-secure when all family members have year-round stocks of food that enable them to avoid conditions of hunger and starvation. Defining the concept of household food security, both FAO and WFP assert that "households are food secure when they have year-round access to amount and variety of safe food their members need to lead active and healthy lives". This definition connotes the 1966 Rome Declaration which contextualizes food security as a phenomenon that "must exist at the individual, family, national and global levels," with an ardent desire to ensure that "all people at all times have physical and economic access to enough and nutritious food in order to cover their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life" [FAO, 1996]. In our opinion, this definition misses an important aspect. Food security must also conform to social, cultural and psychological dynamics that are intrinsic prerequisites for human existence.

Food insecurity is not confined to poverty-stricken countries only. The study made a comprehensive analytical interplay of the ONJAMA household food security experience with other similar programs that were conducted in the developed, emerging and poor countries. The study examined the imperatives of food insecurity in USA, where 11.9 percent of total households were food insecure and depended upon food handouts in 2003. The Russian doctrine of food security was also explored. The country lags far behind in the production of meat, poultry, dairy products, with high dependency on imports of food products. As a result, annual per capita consumption of some food products is lower than the world's recommended dietary requirements.

The Tachai Rural Development Model in China was primarily a program for arresting the problem of hunger and poverty. This model was based on internal verities of self-reliance and intra-communal solidarity. The Tachai model was typically consonant with the ONJAMA household food security programme.

The food security strategy in India underscores an important aspect of food production vis-a-vis equitable food distribution. For example, in 2005, India had enough food stocks but inequitably distributed. A surplus production of food grains and widespread hunger coexisted mutually. There were 200 million food insecure families in the country while it had food buffer stocks of 60 million tons in excess conversely.

The Zero Hunger Programme in Brazil addresses the dire problems of hunger and poverty. A quarter of the country's population lives in conditions of extreme poverty on an income of less than US$ 1.06 a day. Yet the Brazilian society has a high skewed social stratification. About 90 percent of its total population live in the south, while 60 percent of food insecure populations live in the north, the majority of them are black-skinned.

Other food security strategies researched include food security programme in Kenya, Anti-hunger project in Uganda, Ethiopia's "green drought" management, Macossa food security experience in Mozambique and household food security project in Zanzibar. Therefore, it suffices to note that even "in a country with an abundance of financial and nutritional resources, some people continue to experience hunger" and malnutrition.

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HYPOTHHS1S TESTING

In this context, two hypotheses were tested as to whether the ONJAMA programme managed to redress the problems of food insecurity and malnutrition. Both hypotheses postulated a false negative or type II error, meaning that the null hypothesis is accepted because the upshot of successful implementation of the ONJAMA programme was bumper harvest of cassava and varieties of selected legumes. Individuals and families had enough food stocks that provided their year-round dietary requirements. Surpluses of 30,920 tons of dried cassava (makopa) were sold overseas annually. Severe and moderate malnutrition levels dropped sharply from 13.5 percent and 64 percent in 1988 to 0.9 percent and 22 percent in 1992 respectively.

INTERVENTIONS LEADING TO THE SUCCESS OF ONJAMA

The study observed that the success of the ONJAMA program was determined by seven major interventions that upheld the law of the minimum. Firstly, the programme was planned scientifically. Village executive officers were trained to keep records of all economically-active-able-bodied-peasant farmers in village registers. These peasant farmers were grouped according to ten cell homesteads underdose supervision of ten cell leaders. Every peasant farmer was allocated an individual farm plot into a well-demarcated block farm. A minimum range, but not limited to an acre of cassava or sorghum, intercropped with legumes, was allocated to every economically-active-able-bodied-peasant farmer. The selected leguminous crops, with rich nitrogen fixation properties, included green grams, cowpeas, groundnuts, pigeon peas and pumpkins.

Secondly, a special ONJAMA fund was established following sales of part of the relief food to government extension staff working in villages. It was impermissible to close all government activities, in order to allow the extension staff to join other villagers, who received food relief quotas according to the established procedure of food for work. An arbitrary selling price was set of five shillings and ten shillings for maize and beans per kilogram respectively. Over 4 000 000 shillings were raised as initial seed money for the ONJAMA fund, which was used to facilitate transportation of cassava cuttings from the neighbouring districts and later distributed directly to farmers in their farms free of charge.

Thirdly, a framework of ONJAMA committees was established and structured covering all hierarchical levels, from the lower ten cell to the upper district echelons. The committees were empowered with legal and administrative powers for managing and supervising the nitty-gritty of the implementation process of the programme. Functions for each committee were streamlined and spelled out clearly.

Fourthly, the land tenure system in the study area fell under the litigation of the customary land ownership. Numerous cases of the presumptuous lutala Iwane complex surfaced, meaning that land which was customarily inherited, whether developed or undeveloped, was not bound to be allocated to other peasant farmers for productive use. The government decided thence to revoke the customary land ownership system in the study area. This crucial course of action allowed a smooth planning process of block farms to be carried out within legal confines.

Fifthly, the study took notice of the positive and negative consequences of the jando and unyago cultural practice. Nearly every year after harvest, many families mark the traditional festivals of jando and unyago. In essence, this cultural practice helps bolster intra-ethnic consanguine and affinity ties as well as intertribal harmony. A unanimous decision for rescheduling the timetable of the jando and unyago funfairs was adopted. This was a paradigm shift from a food lavish spree of marking the festivals once or so every year to a splendour of celebrating thereof once after two years. This decision saved huge

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Fig, 1. The Vicious Circle of Food Insecurity

stocks of food that could otherwise be used extravagantly.

Sixthly, hygiene tailor-made training at a mission hospital was organized for all Ngariba (circumciser), Kungwi (initiation rituals instructor), traditional birth attendants and some village health workers. The main focus was on reducing the death rate of jando and unyago victims mostly caused by unhygienic practice. Cases of deaths dropped from ten in 1988 to only one in 1990 and nil in 1992.

And lastly, a pest control team from the Sokoine University of Agriculture was sent to the study area for the purpose of decimating swarms of harmful pests, like rodents and armyworms. The main focus was to reduce post-harvest loss.

CONSTRAINTS

The study further reveals an aspect of an insidious practice of male circumcision and somehow iniquitous informal education on male and female young folks, commonly carried out unilaterally by traditional practitioners, namely, Ngariba, Kungwi and traditional birth attendants. This is one of the major causes of the outbreak of some infectious diseases such as dysentery, cholera, anemia and HIV/AIDS. Worse still, during the climax of the traditional carnivals of jando and unyago, locally known as kualuka, food is indiscriminately and lavishly used, followed by miserably difficult periods when communities suffer from acute food shortages or a complete situation of lack of food. At this point, a vicious circle of food insecurity repeats itself as depicted in Fig. 1.

The outbreak of a malignant disease called Konzo was also noticed among male young people and nursing mothers in sparse villages. Konzo meaning "bow legs" is caused by excessive consumption of insufficiently processed cassava. It is a disease of cyanide exposure related to intake of toxins of higher residual linamarin typically found in bitter cassava varieties.

COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS OF CASSAVA ECONOMY

An analysis of costs and benefits of the programme was supposed to reflect all values of the human resource and logistical variables undertaken during the process of crop production. The former included aggregate expenses of production cost incurred by individual farmers; whereas the logistical expenses consisted of fuel consumption, distribution of cassava stems, legumes and sorghum seeds and other related inputs. However, since the main focus of the study lies on cassava production the cost-benefit benefit study is confined to the specific values of the cassava crop only. The average cost of cassava production was 15.8 percent of the total accrued income. In relative terms, production cost was shillings 24.471.820/- or USS 168.771.17, while the average annual product turnover was shillings 154,600,000/- or US$ 1066209. This was realized from exports of an annual average surplus of 30.920 tons of dried cassava obtained from an average price of shillings 5,000/- per ton5. The production of cassava increased by 394.8 percent, from 30.900 tons in 1987/88 to 152.900 tons in 1989/90. The contribution of cassava to the district's GDP per capita increased from Tshs 528.90 ($3.65) in 1987/88 to Tshs 2.280/- ($15.7) in 1989/90, an increase of 331 percent. Legumes and sorghum were mostly produced for domestic consumption. It was further observed that the outbreak of some natural calamities, like cassava mealy bug infestation and an alarming

5 The exchange rate for 1989 was US $1 = Tshs 145/-

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prevalence of gnawing rodents, caused diminishing returns of crop harvest. The estimated average post-harvest loss was 40 percent annually.

ONJAMA AND KILIMO KWANZA EXAMINED

The study delved into a comparative analysis of ONJAMA and Kilimo Kwanza agricultural strategies. The former was undertaken in a study area specifically confined in southern Tanzania and predominantly a self-reliance and labor-intensive agricultural strategy. Kilimo Kwanza is pan-territorial and therefore transcultural and economically multisectoral. At the initial stages, the technological production technique of the ONJAMA program was primarily dependent on a rudimentary, dwarf hand hoe, locally known as ching'ondola. Later on, an improved hand hoe called ngwamba was widely used. Conversely, the Kilimo Kwanza agricultural initiative aims at unlocking primitive agricultural technologies, to applying nationwide structural and institutional changes; from the present mode of production of manual hand hoe farming to more advanced, complex and affordable mechanization technologies.

IMPACT ON MILLENIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS

The study further observed that the general performance of the ONJAMA programme demonstrated remarkable achievements concerning the objectives of the millennium development goals (MDGs), namely; end poverty and hunger, universal primary education, gender equality, child health, combat HIV/AIDS, environment sustainability and global partnership. Firstly, the study area had generally attained food self-sufficiency. On average the district's food requirement of 70.512 tons was produced annually. Actual production amounted to 152,966.4 tons and an average surplus of 30.920 tons of dried cassava (makopa) was exported annually. Secondly, there had been a drastic decline of maternal deaths, of severe and moderate malnutrition of children under five years of age. Thirdly, cases of disease infection among young victims of jando and unyago decreased drastically, and fourthly, there was a substantial increase of primary school enrolment, from less than 60 percent before 1988 to over 95 percent in 1990 onwards. It was observed that restraining the vicious circle of food insecurity caused this remarkable improvement. Hunger, malnutrition and poverty are closely interwoven with food security.

Apart from attaining food self-sufficiency in the study area, the ONJAMA program embarked on a viable project of establishing fruit and vegetable orchards, as well as fish ponds in numerous villages; in order to abate deficiencies of vitamin A, iron, iodine and other micro-nutrients. This project greatly helped diminish the prevalence of malnutrition, child underweight, stunted growth and maternal deaths. A comprehensive network of village health workers and local animators was instituted, for the purpose of empowering communities to monitor closely the intake of vitamin A and other micronutrients. Many villages established feeding posts for providing supplementary balanced diets to children of less than five years of age. Vegetables, fruits, nuts, eggs, fish and other meat sources were given a prominence.

EXAMINING THE GENERAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE ONJAMA PROGRAMME

The district had undergone unwarranted episodes of experiences of devastating droughts, hunger and famine with serious implications of household food insecurity and malnutrition. These maladies can now be redressed if policy makers and scholars pursue the following factors:

- Replication of the experiences of the programme

A government's decision needs to be enforced for the purpose of replicating the exigencies of the ONJAMA household food security programme and correlating them with the current agricultural model of Kilimo Kwanza and SACGOT. The methods of block farming, choice

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of drought tolerant crops according to suitable agro-ecological belts and infusion of cultural and traditional values, are but some of the basic parameters which can harmonize and bolster these agricultural strategies.

- Food security and hunger eradication policy

Food security is a basic right of all households and individuals in a society. Fostering the drivers of good governance is not possible without unlocking the hurdles of food insecurity. The country must formulate kick-start strategies for ensuring that all households and individuals can "eat three meals every day without any need for food rations" or food relief provisions. Formulating a comprehensive food security and hunger eradication policy and implementation programs thereof, are fundamental prerequisites for "overcoming extreme poverty and social exclusion".

- Food programme for children and mothers

Almost every society has a higher proportion of young people and women than other segments of the population. In Tanzania, as in other developing countries, young people, particularly schoolchildren, are among the most vulnerable and food insecure social groups. Developing a school meals programme for primary schools and other lower academic strata is the most critical challenge for creating a favourable environment of healthy future generations. A school meals arrangement for children should cover "their siblings at home and be extended to holiday periods. Pregnant women, nursing mothers and babies" should also be included in this programme.

- Integration and involvement of the young generation

Unlike the traditional farming systems that are predominantly female dominated, the ONJAMA programme underscored a social fabric stance of collective efforts encompassing all economically-active-able-bodied-peasant farmers, the majority of whom were young people. The Kilimo Kwanza agricultural programme is thus challenged to enforce strategies for making agriculture attractive to the young generation since this sector is the mainstay of employment opportunities. Affordable agricultural mechanization endeavours should integrate the provision of reliable credit facilities, modern rural housing schemes and doable rural electrification projects, as basic strategies for improving and making rural life attractive to the young generation.

CONCLUSIONS

The study deduced that the smallholder farmers lacked investment capital and modern crop husbandry technology; a situation that must be overcome by the national agricultural campaigns of Kilimo Kwanza and SACGOT. Appropriate interventions were undertaken locally for redressing these problems and overcoming poverty, hunger and the vicious circle of household food insecurity.

The ONJAMA household food security program was inclusive; it underpinned a well-planned agricultural strategy and constituted specific development characteristics, including mobilized human resource as well as social, economic, cultural and ecological factors. The success of the program was determined by upholding the production exigencies of rural development matrices.

The program won both national and international fame immensely. The CNN filming team was dispatched to the study area for the purpose of capturing images of the block farms, fruit and vegetable orchards and fish ponds for documentation of the niceties of the program, although the mementoes were not sent back. The New York-based Africa Price Organization nominated twice the district commissioner for the hunger international award but unluckily did not triumph.

The ONJAMA household food security program is undoubtedly a linchpin for obliterating hunger, abject poverty and social exclusion facing the rural poor of southern Tanzania. To abandon recklessly this pragmatic and successful agricultural program is thus inadmissible.

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Instead, the program should be well sustained for in Masasi district itself and replicated to other areas according to the concrete conditions.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Many thanks to the late Professor David S. Kapinga who examined the early draft of the manuscript and recommended detailed initial corrections. My greatest debt is to Professor Tolly Mbwette for his noble guidance. He steadfastly accorded to me moral support and encouragement. I also thank Dr. Susan Kolimba, Mr. Mbarouk Nassor Mbarouk, Mr. George Victor Lengeju, Brig. Gen. Mohamed Mwanamakala Killo, Maj. Gen. Dr. Prof. Yodan rCohi and many other scholars, who rendered invaluable moral support and thus facilitated the completion of my work in time.

I am extremely grateful to all my research assistants who did a superb job of data collection, at times, in remote and almost inaccessible areas. Finally, 1 express my sincere thanks to the members of my family for their courage, compassion and humour that they sustained throughout the period of preparing my thesis and facilitated my work up to its final completion.

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