Abstract
Food security is one of the most severe challenges facing the majority of African countries. The objective of this study was to explore household food dietary diversity and food security in a rural area in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. A total of 296 household heads were randomly sampled to participate in the study. The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) and Household Food Consumption Score (HFCS) were used to identify the consumption patterns of the households and their food security status. Meanwhile, a binary model was used to identify the variables that had an impact on household food security. Findings from the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) revealed that 61 percent of the households had lower dietary diversity and were consuming at least three food groups, which mainly include pulses, milk, and cereals. The results from the Household Food Consumption Score (HFCS), however, showed that the majority of the households had adequate levels of food consumption. The binary model revealed that age, household income, access to credit, and gender are statistically significant in influencing household food security status in the study area. It can be concluded that household dietary diversity is not guaranteed by food security, as proven by the regression model. Therefore, the government should consider the impact of low income on food security and it should intensify efforts directed at helping rural households to reduce incidences of food insecurity.
Highlights
There is an urgent need to address the issue of under-nourished people who are mainly living in rural areas
Demographic characteristics in the study area indicate that most households were composed of respondents who were more than 45 years of age, and most were female-headed (87%)
The study was conducted in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa, and the aim was to identify factors influencing household food security
Summary
In South Africa, over 13.8 million people are said to have inadequate access to food [1]. The most consumed food groups were maize products, food products containing sugar, beverages, oil, butter, and poultry. These food groups show an unbalanced nutritional intake, especially in rural areas. Ngema, Sibanda, and Musemwa [4] found evidence that food security was an issue in rural South Africa. It was found that having access to food intervention programs in Maphumulo in KwaZulu Natal does not lead to a high dietary diversity. Khumalo and Sibanda [5] found that households in eThekwini Municipality were moderately food secure in terms of dietary diversity
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