Contextual analysis of government projects for food security in Kabokweni Ehlanzeni district, South Africa.

Abstract

Food Security is a major concern for different countries across the world including South Africa. Factors such as climate change, droughts and frequent floods, and the diversion of food products for production of biofuels have led to sharp increases in the prices of food products. A survey was carried out among 294 respondents in Kabokweni, a location in Ehlanzeni District of Mpumalanga Province in South Africa, through one-on one contact interviews. The aim of the study was to contextually analyse government projects for food security in Kabokweni Ehlanzeni district, South Africa. The specific objectives of the study were: to contextualise the approach of government projects on food security in the study area, to analyse the effectiveness of government projects for food security in the study area, to determine the challenges of government projects for food security in the study area, and to examine the level of participation in government projects for food security in the study area. The four stated objectives are very important because they identified conflicting activities in the study and provided a clear and concise way of defining the goal to be achieved. A simple random sampling process was used to choose the 294 participants. Data were gathered using a standardized questionnaire instrument, which was physically distributed to respondents with the aid of trained enumerators. Descriptive and inferential statistics were employed to analyse the data using SPSS version 28 software. Descriptive statistics including frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, tables and charts were used for analysis in the study. Descriptive statistics were used for the first, second, and third objectives. Inferential statistics were used for analysing the fourth objective. The type of inferential statistics used is linear regression model. In this study, the R-square was obtained to test the model. Therefore, the obtained R-square value of 0.896 and 0.904 in the first and second step from the analysis for this study indicates that the model fit the observations or data at an appropriate level in the study. The results of the study showed that most of the participants were females (64.29%). The variable age revealed that 25.17% of the respondents were between 29 and 39 years and a further 13.95% were older than 62. In terms of education level, results showed that most of the farmers (55.44%) had secondary school education, whilst 12.24% had no formal education. Farm sizes of between 6 and 9 acres were owned by 35.7% of participants. An annual farm income of R23000 was earned by 55.44% of farmers whilst 27.21% earned between R17000-22000 per annum. In terms of farm enterprise type, 57.14% were practicing crop production only. According to the findings of the study, 83.7% of the participants had access to the Social Grant and Unemployment project, making it the most accessible government project. About 7.5% of the respondents had access to the Special project for food security, and 6.5% had access to the Support for Emerging Farmers project. However, it was found that participants had limited accessibility to other government projects for food security. Only 0.7% of the participants had access to the skills and development project, and only 1.6% had access to other government projects for food security including the Masibuyele Emasimini project for small-scale farmers and the Presidential Employment Stimulus Initiative (PESI) vouchers. Political instability (M=4.60) and a lack of money for the projects (M=4.26) were cited by participants as the two main obstacles to participating in these projects. Insufficient distribution and supply chain management (M=4.29) and monitoring of government efforts for food security (M=4.37) were the least mentioned challenges. The empirical results show that level of education (P-value of 0.001), employment status (P-value of 0.181), farm size in acres (P-value of 0.003), type of farm enterprise (P-value of 0.001), and level of awareness about government projects (P-value of 0.001) aimed at enhancing food security were the significant variables and positively correlated to participation in government projects for food security. In conclusion, to increase participation in government projects for food security, the monitoring and distribution approach must be improved. The conclusion of the study serves as the foundation for the creation of a policy framework to help address the severe food insecurity seen in the study area. The study recommends that the community should be well informed about the benefits of government projects for food security.