Food insecurity in South Africa: Evidence from NIDS-CRAM wave 5

Berg, Servaas van der; Patel, Leila; Bridgman, Grace

doi:10.1080/0376835x.2022.2062299

Cited by 35 publications

(29 citation statements)

References 11 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Our results, however, show that smallholder farmers were not in the same favorable position as commercial farmers during lockdown. Instead, the stagnation of smallholder food production contributed to growing hunger in rural areas (van der Berg et al., 2022).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, these expectations did not materialize in predictable ways during the pandemic. Commercial agriculture grew to support a stable aggregate food supply throughout the lockdown (Meyer et al., 2022), even if food insecurity became more pronounced among the poorest households (van der Berg et al., 2022). These inequalities in market access to food are strongly punctuated by South Africa's high levels of socioeconomic inequality.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Monitoring commercial and smallholder production inequalities during South Africa's lockdown using remotely sensed data

Manfouo

2024

Agrosystems Geosci & Env

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

South Africa's dualistic agricultural sector consists of many smallholders that operate adjacent to dominant commercial producers. While the smallholder sector contributes to food security, households depend primarily on market food consumption. Poverty reduction is constrained when smallholders have limited access to markets, technology, or cheap capital. We collate remotely sensed data from the South African National Land Cover map and moderate‐resolution imaging spectroradiometer to monitor land use changes as the country entered the coronavirus disease (COVID‐19) lockdown. Production growth sustained aggregate food security, but hunger rose in the poorest households. This inequality in food security is also reflected in growing inequalities in production. Commercially cultivated land areas grew significantly, with more modest gains in smallholder areas. Commercial farmers were better positioned to expand capital in a low interest rate environment during the COVID‐19 crisis. Without using technology and capital to adapt, smallholders can fall further behind during future crises and growth episodes.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Monitoring commercial and smallholder production inequalities during South Africa's lockdown using remotely sensed data

Manfouo

2024

Agrosystems Geosci & Env

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…As the pandemic progressed the grant experienced several extensions and, by the end of 2021, had brought over 10 million previously unreached adults into the system (SASSA 2022 ). Several observational studies have highlighted the grant’s large coverage, progressive distribution, and (simulated) positive effects on welfare (Köhler and Bhorat 2020 , 2021 ; Bassier et al 2021 , 2022 ; Bhorat et al 2021 ; Barnes et al 2021 ; van der Berg et al 2022 ; Turok and Visagie 2022 ). At the time of writing, the grant still remains in place but was scheduled to be terminated in March 2023.…”

Section: Context and Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Lockdown stringency and employment formality: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

Köhler

Bhorat

Hill

et al. 2023

J Labour Market Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In response to COVID-19 most governments used some form of lockdown policy to manage the pandemic. This required making iterative policy decisions in a rapidly changing epidemiological environment resulting in varying levels of lockdown stringency over time. While studies estimating the labour market effects of lockdown policies exist in both developed and developing countries, there is limited evidence on the impact of variation in lockdown stringency, particularly in developing countries. Such variation may have large heterogenous effects both on aggregate and between worker groups. In this paper, we estimate the causal effect of lockdown stringency on employment probabilities, adopting a quasi-experimental design on unique labour force panel data from South Africa. South Africa is a useful case study given its upper-middle-income status and relatively small informal sector, thus serving as an example to a variety of developing and developed country economies. We find that the negative employment effects of the country’s lockdown policy were driven by effects on the informal sector. Furthermore, we observe important effect heterogeneity by employment formality as the stringency of the country’s lockdown regulations changed over time. We find that more stringent lockdown levels negatively affected informal, but not formal sector employment, while less stringent levels negatively affected formal, but not informal sector employment. From a policy perspective, evidence of such heterogeneity can inform decisions around the optimal targeting of support as the pandemic progresses and lockdown policies are reconsidered.

show abstract

“…After the first detected case of SARS‐CoV‐2 appeared in March 2020, the South African government instituted what was considered to be one of the world's strictest lockdowns, which included a stringent quarantine policy, ban on interprovincial travel, a prohibition of alcohol and cigarette sales, and militarized enforcement of the national lockdown (Manderson et al, 2021). Nationally representative evidence highlighted increases in depressive symptoms (Hunt et al, 2021) and risk factors for poor mental health, including unemployment, hunger and food insecurity, and fear of infection (Oyenubi et al, 2022; Posel et al, 2021; van der Berg et al, 2022). Studies on community‐based samples and healthcare workers have found similar adverse psychological outcomes due to pandemic‐related stressors, including elevated risks for adult depression, anxiety, post‐traumatic stress disorder, and bipolar disorder (De Man et al, 2022; Engelbrecht et al, 2021; Kim et al, 2021; Kim et al, 2023).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Psychosocial stress, adult suicidal ideation, and the mediating effect of poor sleep quality during the COVID‐19 pandemic in South Africa

Kim

2024

American J Hum Biol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

ObjectivesSouth Africa institute one of the world's strictest lockdown during the COVID‐19 pandemic, which generated heightened conditions of psychosocial stress and posed widespread mental health risks. Despite the elevated burdens of suicidal behaviors and risk of psychiatric disease in the country, few studies have examined the impacts of psychosocial stress from the pandemic on suicidal ideation in South Africa. This study examined the association between psychosocial stress experienced under the COVID‐19 pandemic and adult suicidal ideation, as well as degree to which sleep quality and duration mediated this relationship.MethodsAn online survey assessed experiences of COVID‐19 psychosocial stress, sleep quality and duration, and suicidal ideation in a sample of 189 South African adults during the second and third waves of the COVID‐19 pandemic. A causal inference framework for mediation analysis was used to assess the degree to which sleep quality and duration explained the association between COVID‐19 psychosocial stress and suicidal ideation.ResultsSuicidal ideation was reported in 21% of adults. Adults described having moderate sleep quality and an average of 6.9 hours of sleep per night. COVID‐19 psychosocial stress significantly predicted adult suicidal ideation in fully adjusted models. Sleep quality, but not sleep duration, significantly mediated the association between COVID‐19 psychosocial stress and suicidal ideation, accounting for 25.9% of the total effect.ConclusionsPoor sleep quality may play an important role in exacerbating the alarming stress‐induced mental health effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Further research is necessary to understand the underlying sleep dynamics and associated psychological and neurobiological processes that perpetuate adult suicidal ideation.

show abstract

Food insecurity in South Africa: Evidence from NIDS-CRAM wave 5

Cited by 35 publications

References 11 publications

Monitoring commercial and smallholder production inequalities during South Africa's lockdown using remotely sensed data

Monitoring commercial and smallholder production inequalities during South Africa's lockdown using remotely sensed data

Lockdown stringency and employment formality: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa

Psychosocial stress, adult suicidal ideation, and the mediating effect of poor sleep quality during the COVID‐19 pandemic in South Africa

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About