men's and womene's knowledge and perception and their influence on food production, consuption and storage in magubike village, northern

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Food culture and gender:

men's and womene's knowledge and perception and their influence on food production, consuption and storage in magubike village, northern

highland of tanzania mary donati wariro

Department of International Environment and development studies Master Thesis 30 credits 2008

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FOOD, CULTURE AND GENDER:

MEN S AND WOMEN S KNOWLEDGE AND PERCEPTION AND THEIR INFLUENCE ON FOOD PRODUCTION, CONSUMPTION, AND STORAGE

IN MAGUBIKE VILLAGE, NORTHERN HIGHLAND OF TANZANIA

Mary Donati Wariro

M.Sc. Thesis in Development Studies May 2008

Noragric

Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB)

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The Department of International Environment and Development Studies, Noragric, is the

international gateway for the Norwegian University of Life Sciences (UMB). Eight departments, associated research institutions, and the Norwegian college of Veterinary Medicine in Oslo.

Established in 1986, Noragric's contribution to international development lies in the interface between research, education (Bachelor, Masters and PhD programmes) and assignments.

The Noragric Master s thesis are final theses submitted by students in order to fulfil the requirements under the Noragric Masters Programme Management of Natural Resources and Sustainable Agriculture (MNRSA) , Development Studies ( MDS) and other masters programmes.

The findings of this thesis do not necessarily reflect the view of Noragric. Extracts from this publication may only be reproduced after prior consultation with the author and on the condition that the source is indicated. For rights of reproduction or translation contact Noragric.

c. Mary Donati Wariro, May 2008 [email protected]

Noragric

Department of International Environment and Development Studies P.O. Box 5003

N-1432 Ås Norway

Tel:+4764965200 fAX:+4764965201

Internet: http://www.umb.no/noragric

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DECLARATION

I, Mary Donati Wariro, hereby declare that this is my original work for a M.Sc. Degree in Development Studies. The thesis has not been submitted to any other academic institution other than the Norwegian University of Life Sciences for a degree. All materials other than my own have been acknowledged.

Mary Donati Wariro

Ås, May 15^th 2008.

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ACKNOLWLEDGEMETS

Writing this thesis has been a challenging and exciting experience. The whole process of preparing and writing this work has built-up my knowledge. This would not be possible without technical, moral and material from other people. Although I take full responsibility as regards to the strength and weakness of this work, I would like to pay tributes to all those who contributed to its success.

In Tanzania I would like to thanks Professor Joyce Kinabo, Dr. Peter Mamiro and PANTIL colleagues in Sokoine University of Agriculture in Morogoro ,Tanzania. They gave me a warm wellcome and a guide to achieve the field planned work processes.

In Magubike, it was wonderful, it is not easy to mention each by names, but many thanks to Magubike people as they helped me, anywhere, any time and anybody I was asking a help during my stay in Magubike. However, I would like to thank Leah, Severine and Peniford for their good work as assistants in my fieldwork. I would also like to thank Magubike leaders, personnel in the health centre and the village agriculture extension officer for their technical elaborations and for the fruitful discussion we had.

In Norway, I would like to thank my co- supervisor Randi Kaarhus for introducing me into the PANTIL project and facilitate the work, for all the help,and for following me up in the field in Tanzania. Thanks also goes to Lars Olav Eik for financial support through the PANTIL program.

Words are few to express my gratitude to my supervisor Gunnvor Berg. She gave me inspiration and valuable comments during both the fieldwork and writing process. Thanks for weekly meetings and bundles of literature you collected for me. I should not forget to say thanks for cups of tea you welcomed me with.

I would like to thank the Donati Wariro family in Tanzania, and the Gunnar Aaberg family in Norway. They both gave me material and moral support all the way to make it possible to get this work done.

Asanteni na Mungu awabariki!

Mary Donati Wariro.

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ABSTRACT

Food is important to the life and existence of living human beings. We all eat but we differ on what we eat, when we eat and why we eat. Magubike is a village in the Northern highland of Tanzania.

The village is mainly populated by people from the Kaguru regions, but also some other tribes. The thesis builds upon thirteen weeks fieldwork in Magubike from mid September to late December 2007

The study is a compulsory part of the requirement for my masters degree. It is also the fruit of a collaboration work with the PANTIL nutritional project between Sokoine University in Tanzania and the University of Life Sciences in Norway. This study aims at understanding how the

knowledge and perceptions of men and women in a household are influencing food production, consumption, and storage. This was investigated in the households with an attention to gender relations. In order to achieve the stated objectives, the processes of data collection and analysis were carried out with the help of a livelihood framework combined with a gender relation framework. These frameworks were the tools that guided and structured this study.

Among the findings were that people in Magubike depend most for their food on what they locally produce. If they adopt new crops, they will choose a crop that both will be part of their food, and possible to market. This was because they depend on agriculture. Men do take part in the

agricultural activities to the same extent as women or even more. This was because men have also a traditional obligation of supplying food to his family and agriculture is the only promising means of getting food. Women headed households were highly affected with the traditional distribution or inheritance to land. They hey could not own land, and their access to land was possible through brothers or renting.

Maize related food are important to almost every day and even every meal. The importance of food in Magubike is explained in terms of its availability and by how the body feels after consuming that type of food. Some of the food was poorly looked upon, as was attached to some crucial periods such as food shortages and poverty.

Ugali food is stiff porridge made of maize flower. The are two types of ugali, sembe and dona. The difference depends on the preparations of maize grains. For sembe maize grains needs to be piled?

its outer shell before processes to flower, while dona they are processes without the shells being removed. The two foods means different things in Magubike society.

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The gender difference among the household members was seen in capital ownerships, control, access and transfer. Women were seen to lack power for decision-making as she did not have ownerships, control, and access and transfer properties. These properties are material and non- material things and aspects that help household member to take part in daily activities and hence transfer the outcomes in to consumptions and other necessary goods.

Consumption was an important aspect in this study. The choice of food between men and women in the household were affected with the capital ownerships and control. Women could choose what to prepare by choosing from what they have accessible at home, stored as food. When she had to go to the market, what she could choose depended on the amount of money given her by a man or her husband. At the same time, men choose what food crops to be grown in a season, and this decision will influence what can be at stored as food. This was then showing men s control and superiority.

The PANTIL nutritional project has aimed at improving the consumption in Magubike households.

Their focus is on diet improvements through better combinations of meals. The important thing to know is that women in Magubike prepare food, but they do not decide on what food to be

consumed. The diet in Magubike depends upon the choices taken at the production stage, whereby what they choose to grow will influence their yearly consumption.

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PART ONE

1.0 Introduction

The main objective of this study is to understand how the understanding and perceptions of men and women in the household are influencing food production, consumption, and storage. The study was conducted in Magubike village as a result of collaborative work with the PANTIL project both in Norway and Tanzania.

Magubike is village located in the northern highland of Tanzania. The village in located in the Morogoro region, Kilosa district. Smallholder household farmers dominate the village. Traditional society s food is much more central element of life than in Western state dominated societies (Sahlins). Food is central to Magubike people. Their daily activities are devoted to producing or procuring food. Food related priorities influence the choices they make throughout the day. A person would for example choose to attend the market located in eastern side because it would be possible to get more food in exchange for own products on that side than on the other side. A wife expresses her relationship with her husband through the choices that are made when preparing and serving meals. Men express attitudes to their wives through what kind of food they procure for consumption. A focus on food as symbols can help us make a sense of how a household, and the village, organise their activity. This thesis will focus on both the practical and the symbolic aspects of food in Magubike households.

What people eat in the village is both an outcome of what nature provides, and their capability to access it. The local markets goods were dominated with local produce and the prices of local good were always cheaper than the imported goods. This study about food in Magubike has the potential to increase our understanding of how households and village are organised and how they respond to different positive or negative events.

I spent three months in the field. Household members, both men and women, were the focus of my study. The people living in Magubike belong to the Kaguru ethnic group, although there was some few from other ethnics. The fieldwork was between months of September and December. In this time of the year main farm works were over, few has little crops still remain in the farm some where drying their food out in the sun before bringing it to storage.

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Magubike village is a study area chosen for the PANTIL nutrition project. PANTIL is the abbreviation for Programme for Agricultural and Natural Resources Transformation for Improved Livelihoods. The PANTIL project activities in Magubike village are implemented under a project, titled developing nutrition interventions for improved health and productivity in Morogoro and Iringa Regions; Tanzania. The project is coordinated under collaboration between Sokoine University of Agriculture (SUA), Department of Food Science and Technology in Tanzania and University of Life Sciences, Department of International Environment and Development Studies (NORAGRIC).

The PANTIL project in Magubike has previously conducted a quantitative study on food and nutrition in the village. The PANTIL (2006 ) study had the following specific objectives,

 To identify types and causes of malnutrition and develop appropriate interventions (Dietary modification, nutrition supplementation and nutrition education)

 To determine the link between nutrition, health, cognitive development and productivity

 To improve quality of labour force (work capacity) through prevention of malnutrition and diseases

 To determine the socio- economic benefits/impact of the interventions

 To examine socio cultural factors that influence attitudes and perceptions on nutrition and poverty alleviation.

The project has the following expected outcome from the four years of implementations.

 Enhanced understanding of the link between nutrition, health and productivity.

 Improved nutritional status of participating communities.

 Increased work capacity and labour productivity of population.

 Improved skills, knowledge, and nutrition.

So far, the project has started its implementation. Among the activities in the village are those focusing on objective one: To identify types and causes of malnutrition and develop appropriate interventions (Dietary modification, nutrition supplementation and nutrition education) ( PANTIL 2006). A group of five young girls and boys from the village were recruited and trained to provide nutritional in formations to the villagers. Different stakeholders from regional institutions and government employees, and village leaders, where included in the education as a way to diversify the means to deliver the nutrition knowledge to the villagers. In addition, the project undertook

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clinical tests on a selected sample of villagers. As a result of the tests the project distributed nutritional supplements to those who has deficiencies, and tablets for worm infections.

1.1 Research objectives

My contribution to the PANTIL project will be to understand aspects around food, culture and gender. My main goal was to understand how the knowledge and perceptions of men and women inform the choices and strategies for food production and consumption in a household.

In order to address this goal, I particularly focused on the following six objectives:

1. Map and understand different types of food consumed at the household level 2. Assess decision making processes on food production at the household level

3. Look at the responsibilities of different members of the household with respect to food production and consumption

4. Assess the role of norms and rules in determining intra- household food allocation among its members, such as men, women, children, aged, and pregnant women

5. Understand how the varying assets of households tend to respond to food scarcity or food availabilities

6. Assess the storage systems with respect to what is stored, how and who does the storage estimate, and if the estimate meet the yearly consumption at the household level.

1.2 Organisation of text

This thesis is divided into three parts. Part one in this thesis will include four chapters. Chapter one is introduction, and chapter two will include background information on Tanzania and the

Magubike village. It provides background information on Tanzania, and narrowing down to the specific study area of Magubike. It focuses on history, polices ad geography of Magubike. Chapter three will discuss methodological issue and the theoretical discussions will be covered in chapter four.

opens by The theoretical approaches are placed, whereby important concepts and approaches are provided and other aspects combined to form a topic and make it explicit. The research processes are explained to show procedure to how data was collected. Part two provides the core part of this thesis, on data presentation and analysis. Finding and analysis are accompanied with by discussion on a number of issues of relevance for the topic of the thesis. The third part & & The work ends with a conclusion and some suggestions on what can be done to improve food production and hence consumption in Magubike village.

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2.0 background information

2.1 Tanzania national geography

Tanzania is the result of union between former Tanganyika (Tanzania main land) and Zanzibar ( Uguja and Pemba- Indian islands). It was 1964 when the nation declared as united republic of Tanzania, three years after independence from British colonial government.

Tanzanian is located in Eastern part of Africa, it is the largest country. The national population censer 2006 37.5 millions inhabitant in a land of 942800 square kilometer. Tanzania is divided in to 26 region main land and Zanzibar. Each region has people of different tribe background and that make the country to have different cultures and different languages. Swahili language is official language and spoken by all Tanzanian. English is both official and learning language for secondary and high learning institutes (Nation Website).

Picture 1: Map of Tanzania

The nation has a tropical climate although you can experience different climate, varying from north to south and across the country. Some areas have mountainous climates mostly in northern part of North east regions of Kilimanjaro, Arusha and Tanga . In the middle part of the country region of Dodoma and Tabora some parts have semi arid climate.

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The variation of climate support different weather condition as a result it support different crop. For example Kilimanjaro and Bukoba region are enjoying banana foods through out of the year, while Mbeya and Rukwa and some part of Morogoro are enjoying high harvest of maize grains, while in Tanga they are enjoying tropical fruits, at the same time there is area within the same region and the country that do not have that glory. The national infrastructure connecting between the regions are seasonal. The majorities of roads are in a bad condition and so can only be used during the dry season.

2.2 History and politics

Tanzania got independence in 1961. Until then it was a British colony. Tanzania has experienced a stable political situation initiated by late Mwl. J.K. Nyerere. Since independence, the nation has been boosting its economy along with several policy frame works. In this work, I will discuss two policies implemented between 1960's and 1990's, of importance for the development and activities of Magubike villagers today.

These two are the Arusha declaration and the structural adjustment programs of the 1990s.

The Arusha declaration. The declaration was held under influential leader mwl. J. K. Nyerere in firth of February 1967. The declaration formulated the policy known as villagesation policy.

The major aim of the policy was to improve agriculture production through socialism. This program has a nickname of Nyerere version of socialism . The policy encouraged National Socialism and self- reliance. One of the strategies of implementation was to deploy people from town and force them to go back to their village and carry out agricultural activities. Another implementation strategy was form Ujamaa villages (Sarris, A. H., and Brink, R. V. D 1993).

Ujamaa - is the Swahili word meaning socialism. In this policy the word was used as mobilization of capital, in this case it was mostly human capital.

Magubike village was one of the villages where people where relocated from their land and moved to form small towns.

Structural Adjustment Programs (SAP) 1990 s. SAP were an external policy initiated and influenced by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The policy came with several conditions that recipient countries had to follow. Among the conditions was that government should cut down all the subsidies. This included all the agricultural inputs that were supplied by the government to

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the farmers. The result was collapse in most of cash crop production such as Coffee, Cotton and Sisal. Another condition was private investments and free market. With free market, import and export became open. The result was the influx of cheap food crops from countries such as South Africa, whereby the market for internal Tanzanian goods went down.

Together with other negative impact of SAP, agricultural activities experience major setbacks.

Magubike farmers had cotton as their cash crop, but there after introduction of SAP, farmers had to abandon the crops, as they could not reach the markets or meet the production cost any more.

Rural farmers were the subject of all these major changes. Government was no longer able to support education and health systems. They were no longer able to control prices, where the inflation has reached rural people whose now stress on income cash in order to meet basic need (Ellis and Freeman 2005).

The positive outcomes were that people had to find other means for survival apart from farming.

This resulted in diversification in the sources of income including rural urban migration and non- farm activities. The majority in Tanzania opted for non-agricultural activities.

Today Tanzanian development programs have several policies that influence the implementation of development programs. Some policies are initiated externally and some are internally initiated. In this study, I will discuss two policies, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) 2015 and the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS) 2000. The reason I chosen to focus on these two policies is they all focus on giving people relief to poverty and it consequences to human life. While MGGs is addresses from the international level, PRS is focusing at the details implementation at the local level, with respect to special dynamics and needs of Tanzanian people.

2.3 Economy and livelihood

Despite the fact that the Tanzanian national economy diversified to different income sources, the nation relies on agriculture. Eighty percent of the Tanzanian population lives in rural areas where their survival depends on subsistence agriculture activities.

Agriculture in Tanzania includes crop cultivation, livestock keeping, forest and fishing. Agricultural activities in Tanzania are concentrated in the rural subsistence farming and small scale crop

markets. 70% of the agricultural cultivation is performed by hand hoe. The sector employs 80% of

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the population and contributes 43.7% on the national GDP 2006. Of this, crop production

contributes 45.7%, while livestock contributes 36.3%, forest and hunting 4.0% and fishing 3.1% of the total national income. The other activities contributions to the national income are trades, mining, industry and tourism (National Website).

Despite of a diversified livelihood, people are poor. The agricultural sector that contributes most in to national economy does not secure the well-being of farmers. Among the major setbacks are a uneven production due to natural hazards, pest and diseases, poor communication and infrastructure both within the nation and with the outside world, and the ill health of producers.

Tanzania is a member country of the United Nation and hence is set to achieve United Nations Millennium Development Goals 2015 (MDGs). The MDGs are international undertaking defining development goals and set to influence development policies. They are goals to be achieved to change the quality of life of the poorest, Tanzanians among them. Aid donors and some internal efforts fund most activities.

The following are among the major MDGs objectives;

 Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger by half the proportion of people whose income is less than one dollar a day.

 Achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all, including women and young people.

 Halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger

 To achieve universal primary education

 To promote gender equality and empower women.

 To reduce child mortality.

 To improve maternal health.

 To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases to ensure environmental sustainability.

Apart from MDGs, Tanzania developed its own policy strategies known as the National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) . This is the second national organizing framework with emphasis on poverty reduction policies that has gained high attention on the country s

development agenda. The NSGRP is informed by the aspirations of Tanzania s Development Vision (Vision 2025 from National Website). The police is national base strategies which aim at improving the life of people by putting emphasis on agriculture sector, disease, education, and infrastructure.

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The following objectives are to be achieved under NSGPR ;

(I) Reducing income poverty; (ii) Improving human capabilities, survival and social well-being;

and (iii) Reducing extreme vulnerability among the poor (National Website)

Table 1: Major categories of impoverishing factors from Tanzania PPA (2002/03)

Category Description

Environment Weather extremes (e.g. flooding, drought), stresses from gradual degrading of forest, soils, fisheries and pastures; health effects and loss of confidence in future well-being

Macroeconomic National economic decisions such as

privatisation, elimination of subsidies on productions inputs, cost sharing in health, reduced spending on agricultural services, employment, rural livelihoods, costs and access to social services.

Governance Coercion, extortion, all forms of corruption, unsatisfactory taxation (multiple taxation, coercive tax collection methods); political exclusion

Ill-health Malnutrition, injury, diseases, HIV/AIDS, other physical and psychological disabilities

Life cycle-linked conditions youths and children being particularly vulnerable to special problems

Cultural beliefs and practices Impoverishment resulting from cultural norms / traditional belief, diminishing their freedom of choice and action e.g. those discriminating women and children

Source: adapted from United Republic of Tanzania, 2004, Vulnerability and Resilience to Poverty 2002/03 Tanzania Participatory Poverty Assessment: Main Report Dar es Salaam

The National Strategy for Growth and Reduction of Poverty (NSGRP) has a goal to reduce the

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obstacles that deprive Tanzanians and the government from achieving the goal to combat poverty.

Poverty is itself impoverishing the development. The above table aims at identifying different facts that impoverish the poverty reduction efforts.

The graph starts with environmental issues. Environment is seen to be the most problematic at least at the government level. Weather extremes (e.g. flooding, drought), stresses from gradual degrading of forest, soils, fisheries and pastures; health effects are highlighted. My Magubike case study also shows that the villagers are affected by weather extremes, gradual degradation of the soil as seen from gradual low harvest, and gradual degrading of forest as a result of expanding farm land and wood charcoal productions.

Macroeconomic issues that explained as national decisions on elimination of subsidies on condition for agriculture inputs, cost sharing in health, reduced spending on agricultural services,

employment, rural livelihoods, costs and access to social services. Magubike villagers can be defined as vulnerable based on the above definitions. Elimination of subsidies as was noted earlier from structural adjustment programs has made it difficult for the farmers to reach the cost of farm maintenance, low income per individual made it difficult to meet the cost added for health. Hence today Magubike farmers highlighted diseases as the major setback for their production activities.

Disease and other mentioned setbacks remain the challenge that need to be addressed while we are addressing the poverty issues and rural well-being in Magubike.

Governance is and will remain an important factor for poverty reduction. Corruption killed skills and innovations. I will explain what I mean by a single example from Magubike. There were claims from the village on food (maize) aid to come to the village in a particular acute food shortage.

Villagers were claiming that the responsible public workers were distributing little out of what they had, and that the rest was sold in the market for prices that only business people could afford. This story is an example of how corruption affects smallholders who needs help from their government.

In my opinion, political excluded villages such as Magubike that do not have highly income

bringing activities such as mining tend to receive less interest. They villagers in Magubike said they only see politicians when they need votes.

In Magubike, some cultural beliefs and practices diminish the freedom of choice and action. I will link this to gender issues in Magubike village. I will take an example of property rights and women.

According to the Magubike village s traditional customary law and the rest Tanzania villages

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traditional customary law, women have limited land rights. Land rights are attached to inheritance, and women do not have right to inherit. Without land, women cannot produce food for their family, they cannot receive loan as land mostly are kept as collateral. Together with other cultural beliefs, such traditions and practices may be seen as barriers to the poverty reduction, and need to be addressed.

2.4 Study area

2.4.1 Formation of Magubike village

The people in Magubike are from the KAGURU tribe, and they speak the language Kikaguru and Swahili. The village population is approximately 7000, increased from 5000 in 2002. This figure is obtained by counting the number of newborn in the health centre.

2.4.2 Formation of Magubike village

Magubike village is among the ujamaa villages. People are called Kaguru people, but also there are a few from other tribes. Before the ujamaa policy, the villagers homes were scattered. The

distances between the households were big as people stayed in their own farms. The ujamaa villages formed under the socialism policy were based on the he government wanting the villagers to live close in small communities. The government wanted this so as basic welfare services such as school, hospital, security, information and markets could be formed and provided easily. The choice of location of villages followed the possible roads and other infrastructure services. That explains where Magubike came to be. One of the impacts of villagesation was that livestock activities were not favoured in the new homes. This was because animal pastures are located far distances. As they were walking to meet pastures animals were destroying crops and course every day conflicts.

3.0 Methodology and fieldwork

3.1 Study area

Magubike village is divided in to ten hamlets. Each hamlet has more that fifteen households. Each hamlet has a leader who represents them in the village council.

3.2 Sampling procedure

The PANTIL project had selected a random sample for the base line study conducted 2006 in the village. A random sampling is a Sampling whereby the inclusion of a unity of a population occurs entirely by chance (Bryman 2000: 543). My sample was selected from the random sample selected

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by the PANTIL study. A small mathematical calculation was done to determine how much percent would represent thirty-two households that were needed. The obtained percent was then allow each Hamlet to be represented by between two to four household's depends on number of household's in respective hamlet. The household's was represented in number (anonymous) and a lottery was done on each hamlet respectively. Household's where then identified by names. Thirty-two was more than five percent of PANTIL selected household's. This is equal or more than five percent of the households in the village. Boyd et al (1981), described that five percent of population is a minimum representative sample size.

Apart from random sample, purposive sample was also carried out. Purposive sample is a sample that is selected for a specific reason. In Magubike I visited a health centre and interviewed the health workers such as those responsible with clinic for children and pregnant women, and medical doctor. A government agricultural extension officer, village leadership, a non-governmental

organisation, and private people owned shops were also visited and interviewed.

3.3 Participant observation

Participant observation was the main method I used during the fieldwork. Participant observation according to Bryman means an activity where the researcher immerses him- or her self in

observation, unstructured interviewed, questioning and field visits Bryman (2000). My fieldwork was three months.

3.4 Data collecting

The data collection process involved different methods as far as my study was concerned. The first method was qualitative data collection and the second was quantitative data collection.

Qualitative data collection involved participant observation as explained above. Information was collected and constructed in an ongoing process during the fieldwork. Farmers fields were visited and markets events for observation and questioning.

An open-ended questionnaire was then made with questions of production, consumption and storages and administered to households members. Another small open-ended questionnaire with three questions on consumption was made and administered to a class of thirty-six students, both

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boys and girls.

Secondary data from the PANTIL base line study were also used as data and allowed for comparison during the study and writing processes.

3.5 Limitations

When carrying out a study, researchers encounter different barriers on environmental, cultural, economical and methodological a long with the aim of peruse the field work. As I am a young professional, I faced several difficult during the field work. I did, however, find some solution and get on with the study.

3.5.1 Language

Language is a means of communication; it involves symbols, gestures and words. It is also about how to ask and how to respond. One might think that since I am a native Tanzanian and speak Swahili I should not have communication problems in Magubike. I thought the same, but it is absolutely wrong and an advantage in a one way. Tanzanian tribes have their languages besides Swahili. And they prefer to use their local language when they are clarifying things related to their internal life at homes. I also speak my local language when at home.

Language became an additional problem when we were discussing important things with elders especially. They did not have Swahili words for them. The solution I found was the note book I had, where I could store the words for further clarification in the evenings with my host family.

Some times misinterpretation of meaning comes within the Swahili language to English. For

example is it common to translate the Swahili word chakula to food in English. The word chakula was used in the same way for both when they speak Swahili and kikaguru languages. But that was not what they meant by that term in the village. Chakula meant cereals, mostly maize. I could not understand this unless the work was repeatedly mentioned and forced me to have a special focus on it. Language is an important prerequisite in research, special attention is needed in order to avoid misquotes.

3.5.2 Field assistance

Part of my introduction was to meet with people in the village who were going to be my field

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assistants. The PANTIL nutrition program in the village had already trained five youth who were responsible for facilitating nutrition education in the village. I was able to use them as field assistants. It was an easy way to get assistances from people who were well informed about the project.

Among their responsibilities with me, was to introduce me in each household. I asked them to inform each household one day before the day of my visiting the household. And they could pick me and show the responsible household every second or third day. I just have to give this story in order to help you understand point I want to make with field assistances. The first household I visited. In the morning when we were there with one of the assistants he made an introduction using the Kaguru language. And the meal in that day had Ugali (starch) kidney beans (protein) green vegetable (vitamin). I was surprised because I heard before peoples in the village had poor diet plans. They did the same on the other visit. The second household did the same. And the second households also did the same. But as I asked them if that is how they usually ate they said no, some times. And since I listened to the words used by assistants in the introduction, I went back home and asked the meaning of these words in Swahili. I found out that the assistants had told the households were to cook a balance diet as a means to show that they attended the nutrition education programs.

Along with the explanation above, misinformation from the field assistants or other informants can mislead the data and give a false picture.

The solution I found for this particular problem was that I had an evening meeting with the assistants and reviewed my objectives with them. The next household I observed changed which was the reality.

5.3.3 Ethics

Ethics involve what people can do and what they can not do, with regards to different circumstances such as gender, age, and traditions. Women in Magubike are traditionally obliged not to speak much about their husbands. They can only speak about themselves. The fact that men were away from home during the day and could come in the evening after works I spent my days with women and children when they came back from school. At one time in the first week, I discovered that

information that was given by a women about men and households was less informative than what a man could say about him self. I made several observations and asked more about that when I was talking with people out in informal meetings. They advice me to ask women questions regarding themselves and their role in the household and men questions about the men themselves. As the

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talking goes on when a woman was not happy with her husband I was able to speak much with them about their husbands since they where initiating the discussions by them self.

Qualitative methodology involves a lot of difficulties. And one needs passion and time to come through.

4.0 Theoretical framework and literature review

4.1 Livelihood approach

Livelihood is a social science term. Livelihood is used as a term and as approach to poverty.

Livelihood as a term means peoples means of life. As an approach livelihood includes assets or capitals that people own or have access to. Livelihood include people, it also includes peoples activities that involve the use of different capitals to meet their demands. Livelihood approaches include problems or barriers that people meet with while they perform their activities. Finally, it includes institutions and policies that inform the process of attaining a livelihood. (Scoones 1998), (Ellis and Freeman 2005).

I chose a livelihood approach for my data analysis. Livelihood approaches have been used for the analysis of rural poor by different authors. My aim was to understand the perceptions of people with respect to food production, consumption and storage in order to understand how people organise themselves within a community and within the house. What assets do household's have, what activities do the household members perform, where do they get help, and which problems do they face.

The livelihood approach seems to be down to earth and to be able to provide a model for answering these questions. The livelihood approach did not have a space where inner interaction of people with in the household or communities can be discussed. In order to analyse my core questions using the livelihood approach, I went further to discuss relationship between people and key stakeholders.

These discussions approached the issues of gender differences, providing information on types of capital and access, the decision making process between men and women with in the household, and traditions practices. Food is a livelihood outcome. Linking the livelihood approach with analysis of concepts of food, the capitals, activities and informed institutions performance was then analysed on how they impact on food productions, consumptions, and storages.

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Figure: 1. A livelihood framework adopted from Scoones (1998).

From the livelihood framework above, capital is an important part of (concept for) my study.

Capitals includes natural capitals such as land, physical capitals such as hoes, human capitals that is labour power, social capitals such as education, and financial capital. Through capitals, I was able to assess ownership and access between men and women in the village. Traditional structure relieved with in the capitals on who is included and who is excluded. The nature of capitals shows the production abilities and disabilities. This is for example human capital is central in production, inability to work due to diseases or any form of absence that creates dysfunctions among the household member. The ability of household overcome dysfunctions will depends on the capital available for them.

Through analysis of capitals, I was able to put PANTIL in to the context of my work. The central objective of the project is to improve human capital (PANTIL 2006). The assumption is

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improvement of human capital will act as a catalyst to the improvement of other capital and hence there will be transformation of livelihood of Magubike people. Magubike people are among most poor people, whose bodies are important for their daily survival. In other words they do not have assured insurance if they can not go out and produce. Therefore their health is central to their present and future well being though productions. Institutions and organisations are a part of frameworks. Institutions and organisations include international agencies, government leadership, and Non Governmental Organisation kinship and household.

There is a debate on how to define a household. Some studies said household to be single unity, other said they are composed of people lived under the same roof hence its member function together (Evans 1991, Quisumbing 2003). These explanations are either based on the household structures (unity) or its compositions (same roof). According to Magubike village household and my understanding on household's the existing understand on household are close to reality, their differences depend on what one intends to study and to explain. Explanations of household's as a single unity and or same roof can be used at different places and both at the the time, for example if you are conducting censorship you will understand household in terms of physical location and its composition. If you want to understand decision making, roles and access to capital within the household, , you cannot see the household as a unity. The experience from Magubike shows that it may be useful to use a flexible understanding on what a household is. The composition is dynamic, the roofs are split, and people eat at different tables and from different houses.

Kinship in Magubike is the institution formed by joint households from the same clan. Kin is usual comprise of structure of leadership. Kinship holds the customary law. These laws are traditional passed to every household's member. Most of these laws are unquestionable and do not have further explanations. The existing rules and norms are informed by ancestors, therefore no room for change or negotiations. Household's and kinship are important institutions in a rural livelihood, as they play key roles in asset ownership and in the transfer of assets from one generation to another. They have a role in livelihood improvement. For example these institutions in Magubike village exclude women from land right through inheritance.

Capitals ownerships and accesses, and institutions which inform them are together informing the livelihood activities. Available capitals are most criteria for individuals and household capability achieve sustainable livelihood. Lack of ownership and access has direct impact on activities and performance. Having recognised the importance of capitals and failures of structures and improper

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processes. The gender issues are important to be analysed. In the livelihood approach, improved food security is among expected outcomes. In order to answer my research questions I will draw on the gender analysis frameworks in so as to able on the processes and the distribution of capital within the household whereby the livelihood approach is weak.

4.2 Gender and Capitals

The analysis of household state of poverty pays attention to intra household members and distributions. Focus on gender will respect the difference between men and women in access, claims, own, control and passing capitals. These differences so far has been in favour of men, is due to this women said a poorest member of the poor household. What people has as capital inform what they can produce and their abilities to with holds changes brought by shocks, seasonality and trends.

Studies about men and women are complex. In attempt to understand men ad women relations there have emerged several models. Each models or framework has both advantages and disadvantages.

Women in Development (WID) and Gender and Development (GAD) are two main existing debatable ways of integrating gender issues in development interventions. WID came before GAD, WID said to understand women in a different context with men. WID is criticized as women should be understood on the same context with men, and what ever intervention should follow the same existing relation between men and women. GAD came to replace WID. One of the arguments for GAD is gender mainstreaming. (Razavi and Miller 1995, Burnell and Morrissey 2004 :256).

In this study on food, culture and gender in Magubike I will adopt elements from two different gender frameworks, the Gender Role Framework and the Social Relation analysis.

Gender Role Framework. Men s and women s activities were observed separately and also on the points where they interacts. Capitals ownership control, and access, were examined whereby the focus was to understand what men claimed as his and what women claimed as their properties and why they do things those properties belongs to any of them. Understand on activities and capitals were then followed with the decision making between men and women in respect to activities, capitals and outcomes with respects to food.

Contexts were respected as what was happening between men and women within the household and

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outside. Specifically I was examining if superiority or inferiority of men or women was extended to context out side home the places where most of activities are performed. Men domination was extended to outside home. Who dominate in the private sphere dominate also I the public sphere.

Social relations analysis is another approach I have chosen to use in order to understand food, gender and culture in Magubike. Social relations analysis seeks to understand particular dimensions of social relations. Within this approach, - Gender relation refers specifically to those dimensions of social relations that create differences in the positioning of men and women in social processes (Razavi S and Miller C 1995: 27).

Social relation analysis provides a mechanism for understanding what is within the social structure that underlies the existing relations, including between men and women. Within the society there are social processes that influence the relationship between men and women, including traditions, norms and values. Understanding these social relation processes will help to plan mode of interventions.

Inability to hold capitals are caused by several reasons, including the cultures, lows, and policies.

These causalities for holding capital affect an individual or a group of individuals, more over it limits possibilities to perform livelihood activities. Women are the most affected on the category of individuals. Ellis saw that in the development programs of today, if ever plan to consider gender in plan and implementations they should know that,

The exclusion of women from land ownership can be regarded as one of the most pernicious of all gender inequalities and therefore one of that most urgently requires commitment to change (Ellis 2000: 157).

Richey, in a journal edited by Burnell and Morrissey (2004), on their recommendations they prefer that to communities to directs funds specifically deals with gender issues within the development programs that will aim at eliminating gender differences. Women exclusion from asset ownership has created a chronic dependence on men. This is not as they are not able to produce but because they do not control the out come wealth from their produce.

Land is a fundamental (capital) for rural poor , (Ellis 2000) for mostly small holder rural farmers The ownership and access to land is cultural design to fall along the hands of men. This is transferred across the generations. It is not only Magubike village but it is a traditional for majority of customary laws in Tanzania.

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Ellis (2000) suggests that one of the means to achieve gender equality is to stop discriminatory customs against women. As far as inequalities is one of the factor for persistence of poverty women access to land will reduce the number of people living below the poverty line.

In Magubike households men and women are seen to be different in terms of decision making, responsibility, power relations and consumption behaviours, his will be addresses in further chapters.

Productions and consumptions within the household are seen to be heterogeneous as the decisions on what to produce and consume are not done only by the household member men and women but also influenced by the need for cash. That is, women decide on the domestic products and men decide on public products mostly wage income (Evans 1991).

Gender relations and gender ideologies are crucial in understanding patterns of resources flows with the household and & ..these results of systems of redistributions are on going processes which give rise to loci of productions, consumptions and investments (Moore 1992: 131).

Ellis (2000) points out that the reason why men are in a position to diversify their income, is due to the fact that they are controlling private spheres where all this activities are found and hence control income they got in additional to household's farming. He suggests that if women will be helped to control the income, these will have direct effect to household's basic needs. It is seen across the culture in Tanzania that women pool resource to household's basic needs expenditure, and one of the police statement from gender activist in Tanzania is 'if you educate a woman you have educated the family'. This statement comes after realizing that women development has positive feedback to the change not only for her newly formed family but also for the parent s siblings and guardians.

There need of putting gender into all aspect of development polices and implementation is reflected in the importance it is a accorded in the Millennium development Goals.

This limit their production and the possible means they can diversify their income as much of what they earn invested in food and services rather that other productive works. This situation brought about recurring of difficult situations such as food shortages. Chambers (1989) Swift (1989) saw that Household's with low number and diversity of productive assets may be more vulnerable to shocks and contingencies .

Women who do not own land in Magubike engaged in various activities that could bring cash, and multi relationship that could provide security.

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Redistributions systems are seen by Moore (1992) and Quisumbing and McClafferty (2006) as they are linking household unity with external networks such as kinship, village organizations, regional political, the state and international context. Women and men within the household tend to form network, both ascribed ones and achieved ones. In a study of the Zumbagua society in South America, Weismantel saw that household survival depended on kin ties (Weismantel 1998: 187).

The major aim for these networks is insurance, they assist when there is crisis mostly consumption crisis. In Magubike household's men and women have external ties with both kin and none kin.

These ties form networks which in turn provide social security whenever there are problems. This includes help on burial ceremonies and sickness situations which are difficult to handle by a specific household's.

4.3 Local production

Discussions about local production about the village like Magubike, need to start with an understand land available in the village. This is because local productions are highly depends on the land as a major capital. Land in Magubike is an important capital on which majorities of the livelihood activities based. The ownership and access to land based on the male side of kinship rather than the woman s side. Traditional inheritance of land allows only men to get land ownership rights and not women. More of this will be covered in the next session on different types of capitals. Here I want to describe the characteristics cultivatable land in Magubike. The cultivated land has three characteristics.

Valley wetlands are lands owned by less that five percent of the people in Magubike. Valleys keep wet soil for a while after the end of rainfall in the village. The valley is economical multi purpose as one can grow crops and vegetables and can rent out land for commercial tomato gardens. Due to its multiple, purpose those who own valley wetlands have a livelihood hood advantage over others.

Flatlands are lands owned by the majority of the male population. These land are only cultivated during the rains. Lastly, there is the land on the slopes. These lands are located in the several folds of the mountains found in the village. The soil in the slopes is exposed to severe erosion, mainly water and wind erosion. According to a village extension officer, crops in slope lands are week as the land is less fertile.

It is due to these land difference that villagers think thus they have land shortages. Tanzania has a

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population density of 33.5 people per kilometre square. It can be said the density is low, but likely Magubike majority of these land are not conducive for farming activities.

Local production is a concept used by Hartmann (2004). He has related agriculture with culture by dividing the word agriculture to 'Agri culture', this shows that we cannot separate agriculture from local peoples traditional. He went further and state that

Food production and consumption are ultimately connected to culture and social systems (Hartmann 2004: 8). I find this to be particularly true to Magubike village with regards to the villagers choices of productions and classification and preferences on what they eat.

Hartmann (2004) in his article on agriculture and food production in Africa; found that people preferred mostly what they produced locally. This is particularly important to understand Magubike village. People were preferring maize that they produce than rice they was imported. The most reason was the imported rice was expensive than local produced maize. Hartmann s main focus was hunger and he explained the importance of movement of food along the region as one of solution.

This is a case for Tanzania village and Magubike particularly. In most cases of hunger, you can find that within the same region, there are areas that enjoy high harvest but do not know where to sell.

Infrastructure improvement will facilitate export within the region. Hartmann also explained the importance of production beyond subsistence as this will facilitate exportations and also will enable production for other use such as production of milk from maize corns.

Culture form total ways of people s life, it includes what they eat, why and how they eat. The experience from Magubike shows that people produce what they traditionally like to eat?, My data suggest, however, that people were likely to change to a different crop if the other crop could produce both food and cash.

4.4 Multiple incomes

Multiple incomes have being used in vulnerability approach to poverty. Increasing poverty creates a situation whereby poor people tend to diversify their activities to improve their incomes (Ellis 2000, Ellis and Freeman 2005, Hartmann 2004).

Agriculture is the major means through which rural families obtain their sustenance. It reaches a

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point whereby the sector does not provide sufficient yield for a family survival. Existence and survival of this people is a major concern in livelihood studies of today. Vulnerability and risk management strategies are important to be understood among the rural farmers. Ellis and Freeman (2005) saw that there is a different between poverty and vulnerability. As vulnerability, focus on risks such as natural disasters while poverty is a situation of being poor economically. I will argue also that poor are vulnerable, when we talk about their condition (poverty) we need to talk on their vulnerabilities and in turn their resiliencies.

Hartmann (2004) wrote about sub-Saharan African on poverty reduction and hunger. He first highlighted that poverty and hunger are inseparable. He went further to denote the outcome of poverty and hunger, the two result to poor health, the outcome of poor health is load of costs, not only cash, but time and lose of human labour through deaths in turn lower productivities. He went further and saw poverty leads to poor education, wasted minds and crimes, and inequalities as a result of choices of favour to one group at a cost for others. To overcome the misery of poverty and hunger rural household's has different activities engaged for survival.

The livelihood approach points out migration of household members as one of the strategies opted by poor families to survive. Hartmann (2004) also observed migration as among the risk management strategies in Sub- Saharan Africa. Ellis and Freeman (2005) saw that people migrate to other villages where they had had high harvest. Migration was observed in Magubike village people migrate to urban areas and to near by villages where they could exchange labour or commodities with food.

Experience from Magubike also show that young girls were taken to town performing domestic jobs. Family back home could receive either whole or portions of their wages as remittances. Boys were moving to town to seek for small businesses commonly know in Swahili as 'machinga'. How ever, they say more girls where in a good position to move than boys as girls where attached to specific families, where boys could not. Hartmann (2004), explains the strategy where by rural farmers grow different crops at different plots of land. This is one strategies and growing one crop at different plot is only possible to farmers who has more than enough land. In Magubike, farmers where growing different crops at the same plot. The reason was just more than a harvest security. It was also due to lack of enough cultivatable land.

Hartmann (2004) classified risks as was perceived with Sub -Saharan Africa, from his findings,

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biological risks seen to be much threat to farmers. Biological risks include plants infections such as fungus, viruses, bacteria others are locusts, pest and weed. Political risks rated second. This includes political instabilities, poor policies, and bad governance. Commercial risks, I will link this with political risk as it includes markets regulations, prices fluctuations and infrastructure improvements to enable farmers to reach markets. Natural disasters, it includes floods, droughts and uncertainty rains. The study in Magubike however show that human diseases where among the major risk for their production. They also mention seeds, both lack off and improper seeds as a risk to their production.

It is therefore that risk varies, dependent on geographical locations, and frequency. Natural hazards for example in Magubike occur every several years, but human diseases and seeds related problems occur almost each season. There is existing risks within the household's and among the household's members even when food is available. Having explored different livelihood activities, their risk and management strategies, lets now focus on food itself. Here I will address one of the important objectives of my study as if the income obtained from off farm activities directed to household's consumption improvements. The study in Magubike shows that there are difficulties in changing the household's consumption structures. This includes adding more varieties of food substances to improve diet. The income which was received could feed the family in a usual was, mostly to make their stomach full.

The income which was remaining was likely directed to other household's or personal expenditure like buying iron sheet for houses and personal use like buying clothes and alcohol. This show that the problems is more than just having food, it is also on how they handle what they got. It includes the choices of exchanging and the redistributions within the household's and among its members.

4.5 Food and culture

Food is among the aspects of what culture is composed of. Within specific cultural settings, food has roles. This roles played by food are varied between the cultures and between the members of the societies. Food form identity, speaks about events, express feelings and separate as well as or unify people. Weismantel saw how food can be taken as material artefacts, how a certain kind of food production and consumption of some key food sent a message to community on whom they are

An expensive food stands for wealth and cheap one for poverty (Weismantel 1998: 7).

Kaguru people in Magubike created meanings on ugali food. Ugali is staple food made of maize

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powder. Sembe and dona are types of ugali whereby in Kaguru society meant more to consumers.

For them sembe was associated with availability of food while dona was associated with lack of food.

Weismantel comments that;

We are what we eat: our food defines us as individual women and men, families and communities and member of our race, our class and our nation (Weismantel 1998).

Despite of the common understanding on ethnic group identified by its food, here we also see food differences between the households status as rich and poor, health and unhealthy families.

This shows different households by different types of food consumed with rich and poor families. In Magubike carrying Dona powder home will mean to others that your family is facing food shortages.

..Who do we eat with. Delaney (2004). Sitting arrangement while eating in Magubike is organized in such a way that they tell something about the composition of the household. When girls reach puberty they can t eat with her father or elder brothers any more, and a son who reaches puberty cannot eat with his elder sisters or mother. In the ceremonies men eat separate from women.

...Eating and body feeling. (Delaney 2004). People associated what they eat with the out come that is feeling of their body. In Kaguru they were differentiating between maize and cassava. For them when you eat maize related foods, especial ugali you feel active and energetic contrary to eating cassava where you become weak and lazy. It is through this Kaguru people have justify their options to eat ugali as main meals and cassava just as breakfast meal.

The facts that household influenced by the structured which inform knowledge about food and hence allow the knowledge to be passed over generations.

It is not difficult to accept the fact that cultures do create rule bound structures that govern the way foods are prepared and eaten (Weismantel 1998: 14).

Girls are accompanying their mother in the kitchen . At the market they learn to choose mboga through this they get oriented to kitchen techniques and get prepared for future mothers. There is no specific age a girls should start learning kitchen facts in different communities in Tanzania, at least many learn in as quick as possible to help her siblings.

For the case of Magubike it starts between six and eight years. They first start by washing plates

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and swept the kitchen. Then will start making fire and gradually will make porridge for their young.

These processes continue until when they take over and make a complete meal. Most of girls who y reaches this menstruation they are regarded as their foot are on the door out to be married.

Understanding about women, food and kitchen gives an important understanding of household members relations and food. Seen the positions of men in decision-making on food and what a woman do, it is there fore understood that educating only women and girls will not help to improvement of diet. We saw how decisions on production and consumption are made with men.

We also saw the role of women around decisions on food. This will be a necessary factor for nutritional interventions programs like PANTIL project in Magubike.

PART TWO

FINDINGS AND ANALYSIS

This part of the thesis will contain four chapters. Chapter five will be about types of capital controlled by household members. Chapter six will be about household's activities. Chapter seven will be about food storages. Chapter eight will be about institutions. Household’s capital will include the social, physical, natural and financial capital that households used in their productions and income bringing activities. The activities chapter will include crop production activities and income activities. Chapter seven will includes the means to which household store their food.

Chapter eight will include institutions, which inform people’s activities. These institutions will include household, kinship village government and non-governmental organisations. Chapters five, six and seven will emphasize production and consumption within the household. They will show how Magubike households get their food, how they obtain cash and how they use obtained good and cash for household food.

5.0 Household capitals

Households capitals presentation is a usefully means one needs to understand about household livelihoods. Examine about household need to understand capitals and relations of individuals within the household in relation to access, claims, ownership, control, transfers and forms of investments. This is because capitals determines choices and constrains of livelihood strategies.

There are five main capitals. The first is natural, second is physical ,third is human, fourth is social and fifth is financial capital. The presentation of my findings will, in this section, be structured on

men's and womene's knowledge and perception and their influence on food production, consuption and storage in magubike village, northern

Food culture and gender: