Investigating the impact of the National Red Meat Development Programme in improving household food security and the perception of farmers on grass biodiversity in uMzimkhulu local municipality, KwaZulu-Natal.

Abstract

The study aimed to investigate the role of the National Red Meat Development Programme on household food security and grass biodiversity in rural areas at uMzimkhulu. Self-administered questionnaires achieved this for all the 77 smallholder beef farmers under the St. Paul feedlot project between July and September 2021. Lived experiences of the farmers were identified, characterized, and presented into themes. This is a phenomenological study using a mixed research approach. Data analysis was conducted using the Household Food Insecurity Access scale (HFIAS) developed by the USAID to determine St. Paul feedlot beneficiaries' household food security status, and descriptive statistics were used to assess farmers' perception of grass biodiversity loss in the study area. The study findings reveal that the majority (80.50%) of the beneficiaries were food insecure while 19.50% were food secure. Food insecurity was mostly associated with farmers who were unable to sell their cattle or those whose cattle were not ready to be marketed when bureaucratic obstacles such as inadequately funding of the programme, lot of red tapes in policy implementation, Service Level Agreement (SLA) not signed on time and lack of integration of government departments supporting the programme. Farmers have indicated that feed challenges were the main constraints to the programme. The feedlot will spend most of the time without the feed, at some point there was not operational cash to purchase feed and treatment. Therefore, farmers lost opportunities to earn an income due to such challenges. Most of the farmers perceived that there was a grass biodiversity loss in the area. Chi-square results show a significant difference (p = 0.001) between gender and factors that threaten grass biodiversity. Most of the farmers report that climate change is a threat to biodiversity. The study indicates that farmers are aware of the grass biodiversity loss, and their perception is that livestock and rangeland burning is one of the main causes of this biodiversity loss. However, most of them indicated that they feel like they were not informed about biodiversity loss, but they can notice it. The programme to be effective in addressing food insecurity and grass biodiversity the SLAs must be signed on time and budget must be given a greater attention to prevent facilities to have shortages of feed and treatments. Efficient budgeting for the programme will allow it to be sustainable and be able reduce food insecurity and grass biodiversity loss. The marketing platform for the output in the programme need to be revisited because the classification system used in South Africa’s formal markets do not favour cattle from smallholder farmers. And there is a need of efficient capacity building for smallholder farmers for the management of cattle before it is sent to the feedlot and cattle breeds and age required. The government needs to intervene by reducing red tape in policy implementation and revise the tendering system used in procurement of agricultural products. Moreover, the programme needs to implement a policy that accepts younger animals in the custom feedlot. Keywords: biodiversity, communal area, food security, HFIAS, National Red Meat Development Programme