Abstract:
The study intended to establish the perceptions of community on climate change,
identifying the Hadzabe' food insecurity coping strategies toward climate change and
assessing the extent of food availability and stability. The study was conducted in
five selected villages in Iramba and Mbulu Districts namely Kipamba, Munguli,
Y aedachini, Mongo wa Mono and Domanga. The cross-sectional technique was used
to collect data. Purposive and Simple random sampling methods were used to obtain
100 respondents. Both structured and unstructured questionnaire were used in data
collection, supplemented by focus group discussion and key informants. Data were
analyzed using computer programmes and content analysis method. The descriptive
statistics such as frequencies, and percentages were computed. The finding from this
study reveals that people have experienced the presence of climate change and hence
lead to the chronic food insecurity. However, the Hadzabe have developed different
coping strategies to mitigate the situation. The most used coping strategies included:
relying food from government and NGOs, eating foods which have not been used
before, migrating to the area with food, borrowing food and selling labour and
engaging in petty business. The dependence on wild food and lack of food storage
facilities and habit were identified as the main contributing factors to food insecurity
to the Hadzabe. The study concluded that, there is a need for improving the coping
capacity of the Hadzabe by strengthening their coping strategies and recognizing the
importance of forest resource in supporting the Hadzabes' livelihoods to improve
food availability and stability. It is recommended that long term development
measures such as training on crops and animals' husbandry, modern beekeeping, food processing and storage techniques should be provided to the Hadzabe so as to
ensure food security in their households.
