Impact of market liberalisation on household food security in Tanzania

Abstract

During the November 1987 Conference on Food Security Research in Southern Africa, we presented a paper on the impact of adjustment and stabilization policies in general, and market liberalisation in particular, on food security in Tanzania. Our 1987 paper included: a brief history of agricultural policy since independence in 1961; an analysis of the characteristics of food consumption in rural and urban areas; a detailed examination of the evolution of the intervention regime and its impact on production, consumption, and food security; and an indepth discussion of the impact of recent adjustment policies and market liberalization on food security. This paper analyses the impact of policy measures since July 1984 on household food security. The paper is divided into four sections. A summary of our 1987 paper and a review of factors affecting food supply in the long- and short-run at the micro level is presented in Appendix I. Section two, a major component of this paper, uses micro-level data to analyse the impact of food market liberalization on consumption growth, mainly through income and price changes. The third section examines some possible policy interventions to reduce food insecurity for those most at risk and presents an ex ante analysis of the impact of such policies on the at-risk households.