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.
