Supermarket proliferation and their contribution on urban farming and food security in Tanzania

Abstract

Supermarkets are spreading very rapidly in developing countries, a phenomenon that begun mainly in the past decade. The diffusion rates in developing countries have varied over regions, characterized by three waves. Tanzania experienced the emergence of supermarkets in the third wave in the late 1990’s to mid 2000’s. Supermarkets dominate in urban areas where there is high population. This study investigates the impact of supermarket expansion on urban farming and food security in urban areas. The study was conducted in Dar es Salaam city. A total of 201 urban farmers were selected and 7 supermarket managers/representatives were interviewed. The Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20 was used to analyze the data. The findings revealed that the mushrooming of supermarkets in the city have contributed positively to food security as large amounts of food stuffs were stocked in the surveyed supermarkets. The stocked food stuffs were sourced from outside the country and some were sourced from urban farmers especially eggs and vegetables and thus providing market to the urban farmers. The study also revealed that most of urban farmers had little access to the supermarkets as their produce did not meet the criteria demanded in the supermarkets in terms of quantity and quality. The study recommends that the government of Tanzania should strengthen the laws with regard to inclusion of locally produced food products in the supermarkets so as to enhance market availability to the Tanzania’s farmers.