Socio-economic factors affecting home gardens as a livelihood strategy in rural areas of the Eastern Cape province, South Africa

L Mdiya,L Mdoda

doi:10.17159/2413-3221/2021/v49n3a12823

Abstract

Home gardens have been identified as one of the possible ways of producing food and offer great solutions to some of the issues surrounding poverty alleviation and improving food security in rural areas. However, home gardens' potential as a living strategy has not been recognized and affected by many factors. Therefore, the study examines socio-economic factors influencing home gardens as a living strategy in rural areas of the Eastern Cape Province. The study was conducted in the Eastern Cape Province rural areas, where data was collected from 200 households using snowball sampling. The study made use of descriptive and logit regression models for analysis. The study results reveal that female households actively participated in home gardens with an average of 46 years. Households were landowners with an average farm size of 3 Ha and owning farm assets. Home gardens contributed immensely to households by providing food for home consumption and generating income from crops and vegetables. The study concludes that Socio-economic factors were the factors influencing home gardens as the living strategy in rural areas. Therefore, the study recommends the provision of external personnel in rural areas to assist home gardeners in improving their productivity.

Highlights

The massive population of people living in developing countries suffers from hunger, food starvation, and food insecurity due to the lack of food produced (Galhena, Freed, and Maredia, 2013)
The study results reveal that majority of home gardeners in the Eastern Cape were female households with a proportion of 68% while male counterparts with 32%
These results agree with Matebeni (2018) and Ortmann and King (2006) that the majority of the households are females who are actively participating in home gardens, while male counterparts migrate to cities for nongovernment jobs

Summary

Introduction

The massive population of people living in developing countries suffers from hunger, food starvation, and food insecurity due to the lack of food produced (Galhena, Freed, and Maredia, 2013). Literature suggests that home gardens are small portions of land around the household or within walking distance from the family home used for farming vegetables or other crops such as maize This is one of the most important sources of food in many rural areas in developing countries and can significantly contribute to meeting daily household needs for better nutrition and health (Musotsi et al 2008). In a study conducted by Rodrigue et al (2015) on factors affecting home gardens, literature indicated that the home gardens' socio-economic, demographic, local context, and ecological conditions positively contribute to rural livelihood. Some of these factors include home garden ownership, gender, age, and lack of financial resources. There’s an increasing need to investigate socio-economic factors affecting home gardens as a living strategy in rural areas of the Eastern Cape Province

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Conclusion