RESIDENTS of Dar es Salaam feel better as food prices fall, a study by a World Bank funded not-for-profit organisation, Twaweza shows.

The study which was conducted between January and April, this year through phone calls involving thousands of residents of Dar es Salaam, established that the situation has significantly improved compared to similar period last year.

Twaweza manager of statistics and research, Mr William Kihula said that since the beginning of the year there has been a slight but steady improvement in Dar es Salaam citizens' food security.

He said that the study was based on mobile phone interviews with a sample of citizens of all three districts of Dar es Salaam, where the respondents were asked on how many meals per day they had during the week prior to the interview.

"The survey showed a steady improvement regarding the situation, against a backdrop of price hikes of the previous year whereby the country's inflation rate had seen a drastic and unremitting increase throughout the year, reaching 18 per cent by December 2011," he explained.

Twaweza said respondents of the survey were asked how many meals per day they typically had during the week prior to the interview. "After a sharp drop between the baseline conducted in August and September 2010 and January 2012, the percentage of households which report to have three meals a day has gradually increased since the beginning of the year," the report noted.