Masters Degrees (Food Security)

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Assessment of vegetable postharvest losses among smallholder farmers in Umbumbulu area of KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa.
(2014) Garikai, Maremera.; Bogale, Ayalneh.
Smallholder agriculture is identified as one of the probable and sustainable approaches to farming and offers insights towards a paradigm shift in food, nutritional and income security. Generally, smallholder fresh produce farmers in South Africa have performed poorly and have not delivered on their development objectives of increasing crop production and improving rural livelihoods. Where farmers have access to supply markets, post crop maturity quality deterioration and postharvest losses deprive farmers of profit. Lack of postharvest handling knowledge and effective cold storage facilities to mitigate postharvest losses threatens their profitability. In spite of the acute damage caused by fresh produce postharvest losses; these challenges have not received much attention, with the focus mainly on encouraging farmers to increase production. For perishable crops such as leafy and fruit vegetables, there is even fewer representative data available in African countries. Research on the contribution of postharvest losses on household food insecurity is limited, yet postharvest loss reduction may substantially contribute to food, nutritional and income security for many rural households. Postharvest handling practices of smallholder farmers who face several constraints related to production, postharvest handling and marketing are relatively unknown because they have not actively participated in formal value chains. The study set out to investigate postharvest losses among smallholder farmers in Umbumbulu area of KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. Specifically, the study set out to describe the demographic and socio-economic characteristics of smallholder vegetable farmers in Umbumbulu; determine the main vegetables grown by smallholder farmers, their knowledge, training and the respective postharvest handling practices and to establish the determinants of vegetable postharvest losses among the smallholder farmers. Primary data was gathered by conducting a survey on 120 purposively selected smallholder vegetable farmers supplying and others who are intending to supply Umbumbulu Agri-Hub using a structured questionnaire, key informant interviews and observations. Socioeconomic data, household demographics, agronomic practices, knowledge, training and postharvest handling practices were captured during the survey. Descriptive statistics was used to provide summary and frequency of key variables. The ordered probit econometric model was used to establish leafy and fruit vegetable postharvest loss determinants with respect to cabbage and spinach as leafy vegetables since they were the most grown vegetables; grown by 90% and 85% of the farmers in the study area respectively and played a critical role as household food and income source. Tomatoes were selected among the fruit vegetables since they were reported to have high postharvest losses and among the fruit vegetables, they were the ones grown by most of the farmers (76.7%). Cabbage postharvest losses were significantly influenced by gender of household head, farming experience, literacy, type of packaging used, distance to the market and attendance of postharvest handling training. On the other hand, spinach postharvest losses were significantly influenced by gender of household head, farming experience, hand and equipment washing before harvesting, time of harvesting, storage duration before marketing and attendance of postharvest handling training. Variables that significantly influenced tomato postharvest losses were farming experience, farmers’ group membership, farm size, hand and equipment washing, packaging used and distance to the market. Findings from this study provide expedient tangible acumens for policy makers, agricultural extension officers, farm advisers and researchers in the design of effective and efficient policies, programmes and projects which can enrich the smallholder farmer postharvest handling practices, increase smallholder farmer’s capacity to market their produce, drive progression in the fresh produce value chain and hence considerably contribute towards food, income and nutritional security.
Contribution of informal markets to poverty reduction and household food security among street traders in Thulamela local municipality of Vhembe district Limpopo province.
(2013) Mafunzwaini, Mpho Michael.; Bogale, Ayalneh.
Although the government of South Africa has embarked on various interventions to address problems facing the country, a skewed economic structure, high unemployment rate, chronic poverty and structural household food insecurity continue to represent the country. As a result, many unemployed people and poor households venture into informal street trading to escape these challenges. It is against this background that this study attempts to document the contribution of the informal economy to poverty reduction and household food security. The following objectives were implemented in order to achieve the intention of the study: to document the profile of informal street traders in Thulamela Local Municipality, assessing their knowledge of operating a business and the challenges they face, and to assess the prevalence of household food insecurity amongst households engaged in informal street trading in Thulamela Local Municipality. A multi-stage sampling technique was adopted to randomly select 100 controlled informal street traders. A mixed research method, field observations, key informants and open-ended and closed questionnaires were used to gather the information. Analysis of the data was done with Statistical Package for the Social Sciences. The outcomes of the study revealed that informal street traders in Thulamela Local Municipality are 45 years old on average. Most of them live in rural areas in a household that consists of 5.3 family members. The informal street traders were found to have ten years of operating experience and predominantly trading horticultural crops. However, the sector is still confronted with various challenges that are obstructing its growth, profitability and sustainability. Amongst interviewed street traders, 37% were found to be food secure, 14% mildly food insecure, 33% moderately food insecure and 16% severely food insecure. The majority of households were unable to access sufficient food they prefer. Households can be affected by food insecurity in different ways depending on their socio-economic characteristics. Some significant differences were noticed between the socio-economic variables and household food insecurity prevalence categories. The study therefore recommends that policy-makers need to recognise and admit the importance of informal street trading as the number of people venturing into the informal sector accumulating.
A livelihood analysis of the contribution of community gardens to food security in Msunduzi and uMngeni Municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
(2012) Mudzinganyama, Tatenda Charmaine.; Bogale, Ayalneh.; Shimelis, Hussein Ali.
South Africa is a net food exporter, however, scores of households in the rural and peri-urban and urban areas are food insecure. Some households in the peri-urban areas of uMngeni and Msunduzi Municipalities of KwaZulu-Natal have sought to alleviate their households from food insecurity through community gardens, which are widely promoted and used as a means to increase food supply. This study was centred on a livelihood based analysis of the contribution of community gardens to food security in Msunduzi and uMngeni Municipalities, KwaZulu-Natal. A survey was conducted among 46 participants and data was collected through the use of Livelihood- based Participatory Analysis (LiPA) tools. LiPA emerged as a tool for analysis with the development of sustainable livelihoods approach. Livelihood analysis made use of participatory methods to evaluate the following Framework of African Food Security indicators: improvement of risk management and resilience; increase in supply of affordable food; increase in economic opportunities for the vulnerable; and improvement in dietary diversity. Gardening helped to supply the participants with fresh produce, however, gardening did little to improve the participants risk management and economic opportunities. Drought, theft and insects were identified as the major factors limiting the success of community gardens. Despite the challenges, the community gardeners were indeed benefiting from community gardening therefore, further research could be carried out to compare food security among households involved in community gardening and those not involved.

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Browsing Masters Degrees (Food Security) by Author "Bogale, Ayalneh."