Factors affecting households’ choices to participate in markets are often not disaggregated by gender, leading to policies that are insensitive to women’s needs. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, the study analysed challenges faced by male and female-headed households in goat commercialisation in the semi-arid Msinga area of South Africa. The main constraints were poor condition of goats and mortality, high illiteracy rates of women, shortage of transport to take goats to the market and limited access to information. The study recommends that women be provided with greater market access and information and for the government to avail more attractive investment opportunities to reduce the use of goats as a store of wealth.
Societal Impact Statement Understanding the perceptions of benefits and threats from trees is important for the livelihoods of communities. The study used focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and a questionnaire survey of 226 households in the province of KwaZulu‐Natal, South Africa. The findings showed that household socio‐economic factors such as gender and land tenure influenced perceptions of tree growing, and households that were involved in a tree restoration project viewed trees as contributing toward their livelihoods by reducing hunger. Hence there is a need to design strategies that promote socio‐economic inclusivity of all households and genders and promote programs that increase awareness of ecosystem services within communities. Summary Understanding the socio‐economic factors that shape the way households value and utilize natural resources is critical in developing nature‐based solutions. The study was aimed at understanding how the socio‐economic circumstances of households determined their perceptions of the role of trees in livelihood delivery. A case study of Buffelsdraai and Osindisweni communities was used; these sites are adjacent to a municipal landfill where a tree restoration project intended to mitigate the effects of climate change is being implemented, and some of the households are involved in this project. The study used focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and a questionnaire survey of 226 households. It explored gender perspectives on the perceived benefits and threats of tree restoration. It analyzed the influence of households' economic characteristics and spatial configuration (the subdivisions of the landscape) to assess the impact of land tenure. The findings showed that gender influenced the perceptions that economic benefits can be derived from participating in the project. Households involved in the tree restoration project viewed trees as contributing to their livelihoods by reducing hunger. Households in peri‐urban settlements, permanently resident in the area, showed greater reliance on natural resources than those in informal settlements and rural areas. Such differences can be attributed to differences in land tenure. Hence, there is a need to design strategies and operations that promote socio‐economic inclusivity of all households and genders and reduce inequality. These findings are important for informing scaling to yield better climate change considerations and policies.
Small-scale goat farming can significantly contribute to livelihoods, particularly in semi-arid areas where rainfall is erratic and crop farming is too risky. The study investigated the gendered-differentiated contribution of goat farming to household food income and food security in the semi-arid area of Msinga in South Africa using focus group discussions, key informant interviews and a questionnaire survey of 241 households. Using the Household Food Insecurity and Access Scale to measure the household food security of goat farming households, descriptive statistics and the Chi-square statistics, results showed a significant relationship between food security and the household socio-economic parameters such as the education level of the household head (p < 0.05), the gender of the household head (p < 0.05) and the total household income (p < 0.01). The Tobit regression model showed that the main factors determining food security at the household level were education levels, gender and the total household income. Female-headed households were less food secure than male-headed households because they did not have reliable employment to provide adequate and nutritious food for their households. Therefore, empowering women is crucial to ensuring food security because unstable employment opportunities lead to households’ failure to cope with food insecurity adequately. Goat farming did not contribute to household food security because it generated little income as goat sales were generally low, with a mean of 2.1 for male headed-households and 1.0 for female headed-households in 12 months (p < 0.05). Farmers obtained little income from goat farming because goat flock sizes for most households did not increase due to poor nutrition, diseases, predation, and theft. With the household food basket cost reported to be ZAR3 400/US$188, a household would need to sell up to four goats each month to survive solely on goat farming. However, where goat flock size was small, households limited goat sales to maintain the potential to increase their flock size. Empowering women by promoting rural education may increase their chances of being exposed to better management options, acquiring a better understanding of goat management practices, and making informed decisions, thereby contributing to the improvement of food security. Enhancing goat production is essential to increase flock sizes, as this enables farmers to make more sales, thereby improving food security. Therefore, extension workers need to help farmers better manage and utilize goat farming to their full potential. Finally, rural households need to reduce their autonomy and dependency on supermarket goods and become more agri-oriented.
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