- Title
- Regional and community food systems for rural households :|bthe case of maize in Mqanduli, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Creator
- Qangule, Mondli
- Subject
- Sustainable agriculture -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Food supply -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Agricultural systems -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- MSc
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/10232
- Identifier
- vital:35383
- Description
- Smallholder farmers have been growing food in their communities, but some are still food insecure. Therefore, appropriate food systems are very important for smallholder farmers’ self-reliance as well as food and nutrition security. The study focuses only on community and regional maize food systems for rural households. The main aim of this study was to investigate the regional and community food systems for smallholder maize farmers in Mqanduli. The objectives of the study were to profile smallholder maize farmers, describing the existing maize food systems and patterns in Mqanduli and also to determine factors that influence farmers’ participation in local or regional markets. Availability or convenient sampling and random sampling techniques were used to collect primary data from smallholder maize farmers. Descriptive statistics was used to profile smallholder farmers, as well as, in describing the existing maize food systems at Mqanduli. The binary logistic regression model was used to analyse the variables that had influenced the smallholder famers’ participation in markets. Descriptive results revealed that, smallholder maize farmers in Mqanduli are characterised by high participation in both local and regional markets. Moreover, they utilized both community and regional food systems. Logistic regression results indicated that, out of 11 variables included in the analysis as factors influencing farmers’ participation, 6 of them (age, level of education, market information, distance, access to credit and extension visit) were found to be significant and 5 (gender, amount of land, transport availability etc) were not significant. However, access to credit and distance were found to be the most significant variables, showing a positive relationship to smallholder maize producer`s market participation. Therefore, it was recommended that, there must be more investment in research by government and policy makers when it comes to food systems especially in rural areas, to enhance smallholders’ livelihood. More access to credit is also needed by farmers in order to be able to market their produces.
- Format
- 83 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science and Agriculture
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
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UFH Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension
| Thumbnail | File | Description | Size | Format | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| View Details Download | SOURCE1 | Qangule Mondli Masters Dissertation (Official).pdf | 1 MB | Adobe Acrobat PDF | View Details Download |