Status Quo of Households’ Backyard Food Gardens in South Africa: The “Drivers”

Abstract

South Africa is one of the most food-secured countries at the national level but is food insecure at the household level. The disconnect in the food security at the national and at household level in the economy is a result of high food prices that most households cannot afford. One of the strategies of ameliorating food insecurity at the household level is the practice of backyard food gardens. This study identifies farmland size, land tenure system, agriculture-related assistance to households, location of residence of the household, agricultural training offered to households, and monetary grants for households for agriculture purpose as the determinants of households’ backyard food gardens in South Africa. The study used descriptive (horizontal bar chart) and inferential (Pearson’s chi-square) analyses to evaluate the household-level impacts of farmland size, land tenure system, agriculture-related assistance, location of residence, agricultural training, and monetary grants for agriculture purposes of the backyard food gardens in South Africa. The data for the study were sourced from the Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey for 2019. The findings revealed that farmland size, land tenure system, agriculture-related assistance to households, location of residence of the household, agricultural training offered to households, and monetary grants for households for agriculture purposes are significant to households’ backyard food gardens in South Africa. It is clear that agriculture-related assistance is welcomed by the households but the spread across all dwelling locations is limited; therefore, there is need to spread agriculture-related assistance to all dwelling areas in South Africa. This will increase the drive towards food production in South Africa.

Traditional Home-garden Agro-biodiversity, Agro-ecosystem Services and Management Practices: The Case of Sidama Region in Ethiopia

“…The backyard gardens is encouraged as a solution to supplementing household food security and income. This nding agrees with ndings from previous studies (David & Grobler, 2022, Santos et al, 2022 backyard gardens are practiced by majority of households for their agro-ecological services. Homegardens had also different shapes; rectangular, square, circular or irregular shape.…”

Analysis of the Contribution of Home Gardens to Household Food Security in Limpopo Province, South Africa

“…This may be in the form of agricultural training, input supplies, availability of extension workers, financial support and resource allocation directed at improving home garden farming. The current study has shown how important agricultural assistance is in improving household food security, especially encouraging home gardening in Limpopo, similar to Oladipo and Grobler's [60] finding on the importance of agriculture-related assistance to home in South Africa as this contributes towards household food security through increased food production.…”

Income Contribution of Backyard Gardening and its Association with Household Food Security: A Case Study in an Urban Setting

“…In the present study however, the contributory indicator on income ranks lowly amongst the five indicators analysed. Given the findings on the contribution to the food supply, the present study aligns with David and Grobler (2022) together with Thomas and Terblanche (2021) findings that backyard gardening has a greater chance of increasing food supply and reducing food insecurity at the household level.…”

“…Backyard gardens can successfully alleviate food insecurity for urban households that face a multitude of income constraints due to competing demands posed by urban living and also by ongoing global crises (Galhena et al, 2013;Tumwebaze et al, 2018). Through backyard gardening, the food supply can be increased at a household level (David and Grobler, 2022;Thomas and Terblanche, 2021). Tumwebaze et al (2018) supported the view by indicating that backyard gardens are the major food source for households in developing countries and that gardens significantly contribute to meeting daily household needs for better nutrition 2…”