Abstract:
This study was done in three villages along Lake Nyasa shore in Mbinga district to
assess the impact of climate change on food systems. A sample of 90 randomly
selected respondents of both farmers and fishermen were interviewed using a
structured questionnaire so as to acquire their socio economic characteristics and all
the matters related to climatic change food systems in their area. The research was
conducted from July 2009 to June 2010. The data obtained were then coded and
analysed by using SPSS computer program. The average respondent age was
37years, average household size was 4.7 and education status of the house hold was
23.3% have secondary education, 74.5% have primary education and 2.2% have no
education. The average production of food crops was 5.5 tons per year. The most
vulnerable aspect of food system according to this study was production followed by
distribution, exchange and consumption. Despite this vulnerability of food systems it
has also discovered that the group at most risk are women and children. People had
some adaptations to climate change, and these are farm expansions, intensification of
their agriculture through adapting to modern agriculture and introduction of new
meal regime. The study also found that the community had some coping strategies
like labour selling. I recommended several ways of reducing house hold vulnerability
to climate change and these are first by increasing production through intensification
of agriculture, secondly, by increasing economic access to food through empowering
of local community by strengthening marketing situation, and thirdly through
improvements of food distribution, through improvement of rural infrastructures
especially roads.
