DESPITE assurances by President Benjamin Mkapa to the people that there is no food shortage in Tanzania, fear of a severe food shortage still looms large in the country.

Populations in some parts of the country require immediate food subsidies, while other parts need close monitoring because their food situation is not particularly good.

The latest available edition of the Tanzania Food Security Bulletin published by the Government warns of a "localised food insecurity" that remains unsolved despite vulnerability assessment revelations.

The bulletin, which was released on February 24 this year, talks of nine districts that required intervention because food was neither readily available, nor affordable, to 177,000 people in those districts.

The districts - Monduli in Arusha; Simanjiro in Manyara; Mwanga and Same in Kilimanjaro; Korogwe, Lushoto and Muheza in Tanga; Masasi in Mtwara; and Liwale in Lindi -needed 7,215 tonnes of grain between last January and this month.

The situation in the named districts was expected to return to normal in May this year when the harvesting season normally starts. But, as crops wilted in many parts of the country following the prolonged drought, the food shortage is bound to be severer and more expansive.

The Government is considering allowing food to be imported duty-free to fill the shortage that is expected to occur in the next farming season.

Many farmers in Tanzania, particularly those in upcountry regions, depending on selling their food crops to get money to buy other essential requirements for their families.

According to the National Food Balance Sheet of June 2002 to May 2003, the food availability in Tanzania as of January this year was 9.21 million tonnes.

The amount includes 8.57 million tonnes of food crop harvests over the 2001/02 season, and about 634,000 tonnes of the year 2002/03 opening stock.

As at January this year, Tanzania had cereals availability of five million tonnes as against cereals requirement of 5.1 million tonnes. The gross cereals harvest was 4.46 million tonnes.

The Government statistically combines cereals and non-cereal food crops to arrive at the country's food availability figure. But the foods most consumed are cereals because they can be stored for long periods.

Non-cereal foods are those perishable like cassava, bananas, yams and potatoes. These cannot be stored for long, and cannot be transported long distances across country from producing regions to needy ones.

Perishable food crops are mostly consumed by urban residents who are not producing foodstuffs.

This type of food needs immediately supply and use. As such, they are not regarded as the most important foods that can save the country from famine. Tanzania exported about 192,878 tonnes of cereals between July 2002 and March this year. Of the exports, 151,291 tonnes were maize; 38,233 tonnes beans and 3,354 tonnes of rice.

The exports reduced the availability of the commodities. The country's maize requirement annually is at 3,039,000 tonnes while only 2,927,000 tonnes were actually available during the period.

The poor expected harvest in the coming season is due to the unfavourable rainfall countrywide that is causing drought. As a result, there if fear of poor harvests, as well as poor pasturage for livestock.

Tanzania has been experiencing sunny and dry conditions throughout January to March this year. It is expected that the rains may fall in earnest this month, and some parts of the country have already started getting rain.

In most cases, the current rains are of little or no help because local farming needs prolonged rains. Under the circumstances, the Government has called upon farmers to use improved seeds that could match with the scanty rains.