Question

The current population of Tanzania is 49.3 million with a population growth rate of 2.93% per year. The average annual agricultural yield in Tanzania is 8,951 kg/ha (where "ha" means hectare, which you can think of as a metric acre), a yield that is comprised of both grains (e.g. maize/corn) and tubers (e.g. cassava root) in a 1:1 ratio. The total amount of cropland farmed in Tanzania is 3,709,580 ha. The average agricultural output has increased at a linear rate of about 1.5% per year for the last five years or so. Ideally, one person should have a caloric intake of at least 2000 kcal per day in order to maintain their life. 1 kg grain supplies 3000 kcal; 1 kg tubers supplies 1000 kcal. Use the equations from our mini-lecture and the linear growth equation from the last module's quantitative assignment, to answer the following questions. You will also have to do some conversions for which you won't find specific equations.

Assuming that all of the people of Tanzania eat only grains and tubers and considering only domestic production (i.e. they do not import food), how many people can Tanzania currently feed? Again, round your answer to one place past the decimal and put your answer in "millions", so that if your answer is 155,870,000 your answer is 155.9 Million and you would enter 155.9 as your answer. Hint: Start by finding the total energy that Tanzania produces from food in one-year's time. Then use that number and the number of kcals that one person needs to survive in one year to determine your answer.

Answer 1

Q)  how many people can Tanzania currently feed?

The average annual agricultural yield in Tanzania is 8,951 kg/ha. The total amount of cropland farmed in Tanzania is3,709,580 ha.

the total annual yield from all the cropland in Tanzania is (average annual yield per hectare)x(Total area of the crop land in hectare) =

The yield is comprised of both grains and tubers in a 1:1 ratio.

This means half of the annual yield calculated above is grains and the other half is tuber.

The amount of grains produced in the current year =

The amount of tuber produced in the current year =

1 kg grain supplies 3000 kcal; The total energy that can be supplied by all the grain produced is

1 kg tuber supplies 1000 kcal; The total energy that can be supplied by all the tuber produced is

The total energy that can be supplied by grain and tuber in the current year is the total energy that Tanzania produces from food and it is

Ideally, one person should have a caloric intake of at least 2000 kcal per day. The total caloric intake for one person for full year is (assuming a year = 365 days) =

Number of people that Tanzania can currently feed = (total energy produced by Tanzania in the current year)/(enetrgy need by one person per year) =

individuals.

To express this in millions we devide this by 1,000,000 and get

million individuals

Tanzania currently can feed 91 million people