The Food Security Pack (FSP) programme was introduced in November 2000 by Government as a Social Safety Net, to primarily empower poor and vulnerable but viable farmer households who had lost their productive assets due to recurrent unfavorable climatic conditions and adverse effects of structural adjustment reforms that reduced their productivity at household level in the 1990s.

The objective of the programme is to empower the poor and vulnerable but viable farmer households with agricultural inputs and livelihood skills to improve their productivity with the ultimate goal of enhancing their food, nutrition and income security for self-sustainability and poverty reduction.

The programme has three major components namely;

1. Rainfed Cropping,
2. Wetland Cropping
3. and Alternative Livelihood Initiative (ALI)

These components of the FSP programme are implemented in all the 116 Districts countrywide. The food security pack is not intended as a free handout and therefore the programme provides for 10% Pay Backs or recoveries after the beneficiary has been supported. The pay back are either kept at community level or sold off and funds that are realized are used by the community members for other food enhancing. These include the procurement and distribution of hammer mills, maize shellers, chickens and small ruminant animals such as sheep and goats among others.  

During the enrolment of beneficiaries, the programme targets poor and vulnerable but viable farmer households who meet all the primary and at least one (1) secondary selection criteria. The primary and secondary criteria are as shown below:

i) Primary selection criteria

1. Adequate own labour provided by the household
2. Access to land of size between ½ and 2 hectares
3. Household head or breadwinner not in gainful employmentii) Secondary selection criteria
4. Female headed household
5. Child headed household
6. Disabled headed household
7. Household keeping orphans or abandoned children
8. Household with more than 7 members
9. Household with child or children under 5 years of age
10. Household headed by a terminally ill person
11. Household headed by a person aged 65 years and above
12. Household headed by unemployed (15 – 35 years)