Investigation of strategies employed in rural households to improve food security in Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality : a case of Zihlahleni Location in Middledrift, Eastern Cape Province
- Authors: Gqozo, Odwa
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Food security -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Households -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/10758 , vital:35752
- Description: Eastern Cape is one of the provinces experiencing a rapid increase in food prices while household income is increasing at a slower rate. Against this background, the main objective of this study was to investigate strategies used by rural households to improve food security in Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality formally known as Nkonkobe in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Data were collected from 100 households using a questionnaire as the main instrument by using simple random sampling. Data were analyzed by employing simple descriptive statistics to describe household food security. Results revealed that most (50.3percent) households that were interviewed were male headed and unemployment was high (73.6percent). Moreover, the average age of the interviewed household heads was 59 years. Most (68percent) of the households owned home gardens and had access to arable land which was not being cultivated. Most (87percent) households indicated that lack of capital was the main cause of food security and depended on government grants. Most (100percent) of the interviewed household heads depend mostly on food purchases rather than their own production. The recommendation is that the government should continue fostering its agenda of improving agriculture as a strategy in rural households for curbing food insecurity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
- Authors: Gqozo, Odwa
- Date: 2018
- Subjects: Food security -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Rural development -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Households -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/10758 , vital:35752
- Description: Eastern Cape is one of the provinces experiencing a rapid increase in food prices while household income is increasing at a slower rate. Against this background, the main objective of this study was to investigate strategies used by rural households to improve food security in Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality formally known as Nkonkobe in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa. Data were collected from 100 households using a questionnaire as the main instrument by using simple random sampling. Data were analyzed by employing simple descriptive statistics to describe household food security. Results revealed that most (50.3percent) households that were interviewed were male headed and unemployment was high (73.6percent). Moreover, the average age of the interviewed household heads was 59 years. Most (68percent) of the households owned home gardens and had access to arable land which was not being cultivated. Most (87percent) households indicated that lack of capital was the main cause of food security and depended on government grants. Most (100percent) of the interviewed household heads depend mostly on food purchases rather than their own production. The recommendation is that the government should continue fostering its agenda of improving agriculture as a strategy in rural households for curbing food insecurity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2018
The impact of the farmer field school approach on small-scale vegetable farmers' knowledge, agency and production in Alice, Eastern Cape
- Authors: Apleni, Asanda
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Agricultural extension work -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/8187 , vital:31873
- Description: This study investigates the impact of the Farmer Field School approach on the knowledge, agency and production of small-scale farmers. Farmer Field Schools were devised in the 1980s by the Food and Agriculture Organization as a form of adult education in agriculture. It is a group-based approach in which a facilitator meets with farmers on a regular basis and sets in motion a process by which farmers ‘learn how to learn’, both from themselves and from one another. However, it remains an open question whether the Farmer Field School approach could be a solution to South Africa’s abiding problem of weak agricultural extension. Early in 2015, the University of Fort Hare and the Nkonkobe Farmers’ Association initiated a number of study groups in the Alice area, based largely on Farmer Field School principles. The main objective of the study was to assess the impact of the Farmer Field School approach on small-scale farmers’ knowledge, agency and production, focusing on home gardeners. The study was conducted in the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality in Alice of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The research consisted of a survey of all the study group participants involved with home gardens, including some who joined the groups in 2015 but left in 2016. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs were used. Findings from this study have shown how participation in the study groups modelled on the FFS approach can improve the knowledge and skills of home gardeners, while also enabling them to produce significantly larger quantities of vegetables, and even a marketable surplus, albeit from a small base. In order to make more people to join, more incentives should be made available. Such incentives should be made available only to “kick start” the FFS study groups and take heed in prevention of dependence.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
- Authors: Apleni, Asanda
- Date: 2017
- Subjects: Agricultural extension work -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/8187 , vital:31873
- Description: This study investigates the impact of the Farmer Field School approach on the knowledge, agency and production of small-scale farmers. Farmer Field Schools were devised in the 1980s by the Food and Agriculture Organization as a form of adult education in agriculture. It is a group-based approach in which a facilitator meets with farmers on a regular basis and sets in motion a process by which farmers ‘learn how to learn’, both from themselves and from one another. However, it remains an open question whether the Farmer Field School approach could be a solution to South Africa’s abiding problem of weak agricultural extension. Early in 2015, the University of Fort Hare and the Nkonkobe Farmers’ Association initiated a number of study groups in the Alice area, based largely on Farmer Field School principles. The main objective of the study was to assess the impact of the Farmer Field School approach on small-scale farmers’ knowledge, agency and production, focusing on home gardeners. The study was conducted in the Raymond Mhlaba Local Municipality in Alice of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The research consisted of a survey of all the study group participants involved with home gardens, including some who joined the groups in 2015 but left in 2016. Both cross-sectional and longitudinal designs were used. Findings from this study have shown how participation in the study groups modelled on the FFS approach can improve the knowledge and skills of home gardeners, while also enabling them to produce significantly larger quantities of vegetables, and even a marketable surplus, albeit from a small base. In order to make more people to join, more incentives should be made available. Such incentives should be made available only to “kick start” the FFS study groups and take heed in prevention of dependence.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2017
Assessing the vulnerability of resource-poor households to disasters associated with climate variability using remote sensing and GIS techniques in the Nkonkobe Local Municipality, Eastern Cape Province, South Africa
- Authors: Chari, Martin Munashe
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Climatic changes -- Forecasting Natural resources -- Remote sensing Droughts -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2425 , vital:27837
- Description: The main objective of the study was to assess the extent to which resource-poor households in selected villages of Nkonkobe Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa are vulnerable to drought by using an improvised remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS)-based mapping approach. The research methodology was comprised of 1) assessment of vulnerability levels and 2) the calculation of established drought assessment indices comprising the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) from wet-season Landsat images covering a period of 29 years from 1985 to 2014 in order to objectively determine the temporal recurrence of drought in Nkonkobe Local Municipality. Vulnerability of households to drought was determined by using a multi-step GIS-based mapping approach in which 3 components comprising exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity were simultaneously analysed and averaged to determine the magnitude of vulnerability. Thereafter, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to establish weighted contributions of these components to vulnerability. The weights applied to the AHP were obtained from the 2012 - 2017 Nkonkobe Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and perceptions that were solicited from key informants who were judged to be knowledgeable about the subject. A Kruskal-Wallis H test on demographic data for water access revealed that the demographic results are independent of choice of data acquired from different data providers (χ2(2) = 1.26, p = 0.533, with a mean ranked population scores of 7.4 for ECSECC, 6.8 for Quantec and 9.8 for StatsSA). Simple linear regression analysis revealed strong positive correlations between NDWI and NDVI ((r = 0.99609375, R2 = 1, for 1985), 1995 (r = 0.99609375, R2 = 1 for 1995), (r = 0.99609375, R2 = 1 for 2005) and (r = 0.99609375, R2 = 1 for 2014). The regression analysis proved that vegetation condition depends on surface water arising from rainfall. The results indicate that the whole of Nkonkobe Local Municipality is susceptible to drought with villages in south eastern part being most vulnerable to droughts due to high sensitivity and low adaptive capacity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Chari, Martin Munashe
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Climatic changes -- Forecasting Natural resources -- Remote sensing Droughts -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/2425 , vital:27837
- Description: The main objective of the study was to assess the extent to which resource-poor households in selected villages of Nkonkobe Local Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa are vulnerable to drought by using an improvised remote sensing and Geographic Information System (GIS)-based mapping approach. The research methodology was comprised of 1) assessment of vulnerability levels and 2) the calculation of established drought assessment indices comprising the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and the Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI) from wet-season Landsat images covering a period of 29 years from 1985 to 2014 in order to objectively determine the temporal recurrence of drought in Nkonkobe Local Municipality. Vulnerability of households to drought was determined by using a multi-step GIS-based mapping approach in which 3 components comprising exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity were simultaneously analysed and averaged to determine the magnitude of vulnerability. Thereafter, the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) was used to establish weighted contributions of these components to vulnerability. The weights applied to the AHP were obtained from the 2012 - 2017 Nkonkobe Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and perceptions that were solicited from key informants who were judged to be knowledgeable about the subject. A Kruskal-Wallis H test on demographic data for water access revealed that the demographic results are independent of choice of data acquired from different data providers (χ2(2) = 1.26, p = 0.533, with a mean ranked population scores of 7.4 for ECSECC, 6.8 for Quantec and 9.8 for StatsSA). Simple linear regression analysis revealed strong positive correlations between NDWI and NDVI ((r = 0.99609375, R2 = 1, for 1985), 1995 (r = 0.99609375, R2 = 1 for 1995), (r = 0.99609375, R2 = 1 for 2005) and (r = 0.99609375, R2 = 1 for 2014). The regression analysis proved that vegetation condition depends on surface water arising from rainfall. The results indicate that the whole of Nkonkobe Local Municipality is susceptible to drought with villages in south eastern part being most vulnerable to droughts due to high sensitivity and low adaptive capacity.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
Solid waste management and its implications on livestock health in selected abattoirs of the Eastern Cape province, South Africa
- Authors: Nongcula, Vikhaya Vincent
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Refuse and refuse disposal -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Recycling (Waste, etc.) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Livestock -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/12293 , vital:39250
- Description: An investigation was carried out on the implications of solid waste management on livestock health in selected abattoirs of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The main objective of the study was to determine the effects of solid waste management on livestock health as well as to assess the perceptions of solid waste management among livestock owners. In this study, a questionnaire was designed to obtain information regarding farmer’s perceptions on solid waste and how it affects animal health, and active abattoir inspection were conducted to assess how solid waste affects the animal. The results revealed that most farmers practiced poor solid waste management as a result animals were exposed to ingestion of indigestible materials. This was confirmed on the basis that most farmers (99.2 percent) had no municipal dustbins in their areas, no recycling programmes (94.2 percent) and 51.7percent of the farmers disposed their litter in open land as a result most farmers (75.9percent) agreed that solid waste management was a problem in their areas. Due to poor solid waste management, 53.8 percent of the farmers confirmed that they have seen livestock ingesting indigestible materials such as plastics and 69.0 percent of the farmers suspected that ingestion of such materials caused some of the health issue experienced by animals on their farm. The active abattoir inspection revealed that plastics, wires, nails, ropes, stones, bones, cloths, hairs and polybezoars were frequently occurring in slaughter cattle stomachs particularly in the rumen and reticulum and in female and older cattle. As a result most affected cattle were in thin and average condition. The effect of indigestible objects on body condition score (BCS) and organ condemnation was determined using linear regression analysis test; where BCS and condemnation were the dependent variables and indigestible objects were the independent variables. The results revealed that some organs were condemned in affected cattle and the statistical analysis showed that there was no significant difference (p< 0.05) between the prevalence of indigestible materials and organ condemnation. However, there was a significant difference between the prevalence of indigestible materials and body condition score of affected cattle although they were coming from different farming systems. It was concluded that livestock health was affected by solid waste and recommended that practice of good animal husbandry and proper solid waste management be practiced to overcome the implications (poor body condition score) of solid waste in livestock. Furthermore, close cooperation between government extension officers, commercial and communal farmers in knowledge-sharing regarding health issues of livestock is recommended.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
- Authors: Nongcula, Vikhaya Vincent
- Date: 2016
- Subjects: Refuse and refuse disposal -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Recycling (Waste, etc.) -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape Livestock -- South Africa -- Eastern Cape
- Language: English
- Type: Thesis , Masters , MSc
- Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10353/12293 , vital:39250
- Description: An investigation was carried out on the implications of solid waste management on livestock health in selected abattoirs of the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The main objective of the study was to determine the effects of solid waste management on livestock health as well as to assess the perceptions of solid waste management among livestock owners. In this study, a questionnaire was designed to obtain information regarding farmer’s perceptions on solid waste and how it affects animal health, and active abattoir inspection were conducted to assess how solid waste affects the animal. The results revealed that most farmers practiced poor solid waste management as a result animals were exposed to ingestion of indigestible materials. This was confirmed on the basis that most farmers (99.2 percent) had no municipal dustbins in their areas, no recycling programmes (94.2 percent) and 51.7percent of the farmers disposed their litter in open land as a result most farmers (75.9percent) agreed that solid waste management was a problem in their areas. Due to poor solid waste management, 53.8 percent of the farmers confirmed that they have seen livestock ingesting indigestible materials such as plastics and 69.0 percent of the farmers suspected that ingestion of such materials caused some of the health issue experienced by animals on their farm. The active abattoir inspection revealed that plastics, wires, nails, ropes, stones, bones, cloths, hairs and polybezoars were frequently occurring in slaughter cattle stomachs particularly in the rumen and reticulum and in female and older cattle. As a result most affected cattle were in thin and average condition. The effect of indigestible objects on body condition score (BCS) and organ condemnation was determined using linear regression analysis test; where BCS and condemnation were the dependent variables and indigestible objects were the independent variables. The results revealed that some organs were condemned in affected cattle and the statistical analysis showed that there was no significant difference (p< 0.05) between the prevalence of indigestible materials and organ condemnation. However, there was a significant difference between the prevalence of indigestible materials and body condition score of affected cattle although they were coming from different farming systems. It was concluded that livestock health was affected by solid waste and recommended that practice of good animal husbandry and proper solid waste management be practiced to overcome the implications (poor body condition score) of solid waste in livestock. Furthermore, close cooperation between government extension officers, commercial and communal farmers in knowledge-sharing regarding health issues of livestock is recommended.
- Full Text:
- Date Issued: 2016
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