- Title
- Influence of family structure on food security status of farming households in Alice, South Africa
- Creator
- Ijila, Olusegun Jeremiah
- Subject
- Food security Families--South Africa--Eastern Cape Farms, Small
- Date
- 2018
- Type
- Thesis
- Type
- Masters
- Type
- Agricultural Economics
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/10353/11537
- Identifier
- vital:39081
- Description
- Achieving food security in sub-Saharan Africa remains a major challenge despite efforts made by a majority of the countries to reduce abject poverty and food insecurity. Just as these countries prioritized food security under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), they are equally putting it on top of the agenda under the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). In the face of the political and economic developments seen in the country since 1994, South Africa is overwhelmed by poverty and unemployment. But efforts to address these problems have not given due recognition to the question of family structure which is complex and varied, with immense potential implications for ownership and distribution of resources and the bargaining strength that are likely to determine the food security status of various farming households. Furthermore, the contribution of households towards agricultural production differs according to the way family organizes itself. This study was carried out to determine the influence of family structures on food security status of farming households in Alice, South Africa. Data were collected from 120 farming households’ selected using purposive sampling method. To collect data, a well-structured questionnaire was administered through face-to-face interviews. Consequent to that, the data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and binary logistic regression model. The dominant family structures are nuclear, single-parent, working parent and cohabiting. The analysis revealed that nuclear family where father, mother and their children have access to labour and financial resources could be more comfortable than single parent family. Working parents would probably be more food secure because both parents are able to combine incomes while food insecurity might exist within cohabiting families since the union is less stable because of scarce resources occasioned by their inability to combine their resources to pursue a common goal. The results further revealed that single parent family structures and socio-economic characteristics like age, marital status and year of education of the household head were significant in terms of their influence on food security. The study therefore, recommends that old people should be encouraged to participate in agricultural production due to the wealth of experience gathered over the years. It is probably safe to conclude that encouraging marriage would provide better opportunities to raise the necessary capital to support positive productivity changes that would have implications for enhanced food availability and affordability.
- Format
- 85 leaves
- Format
- Publisher
- University of Fort Hare
- Publisher
- Faculty of Science and Agriculture
- Language
- English
- Rights
- University of Fort Hare
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