How severe hunger is amongst rural households of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa

Abstract

The paper describes household perceptions of food accessibility status, average number of meals a household had in one day and the average number of meals shortages in one month in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. A random sampling technique was used to interview 159 households. Analysis of data utilized simple descriptive statistics and multivariate analysis to describe household food security. About 80% of the interviewed households perceived themselves as food insecure and the rest as food secure. The respondents eat 3.04±0.06 meals per day and experience an average of 2±0.32 meal shortages per month. Most household perceive lack of capital as the main cause of food insecurity. Improving household income through promotion of income generating projects and increasing employment opportunities complemented with wage increment could help household in meeting their food requirements. Government should however continue fostering its agenda of improving agriculture in rural communities though it does not contribute much to household food security directly.

Keywords: Agriculture, food security, malnutrition, poverty, food shortages