Tackling food and nutrition insecurity in rural Tanzania: Farmers perspectives on kitchen gardening as a sustainable solution

Under nutrition and food insecurity are major problems faced by most of the developing countries including Tanzania. Approximately 42% of children below five years of age are stunted as a result of chronic undernutrition. Vitamin and mineral deficiencies are also very high where by about 59% and 34% of children below five years are iron and vitamin A deficient respectively and 48% of women are iodine deficient (National Bureau of Statistics [NBS] & ICF Macro, 2010). Foods with high nutrient content (vegetables and fruits) are difficult to find in the poorer rural areas during the dry seasons. Moreover rural households are affected with increasing food prices due to their low purchasing power (Adekunle, 2013). During this time, most people in rural areas are dependent on staple foods with little diversity.