An Assessment on the Contribution of Subsistence Farming to Household Food Security in Mamokgadi Village, Mopani District, South Africa

Abstract

Machete, M and Rasila, B. N

The study assessed the contribution of subsistence farming to household food security in Mamokgadi village. The main objective of this study was to assess the contribution of subsistence farming to achieving household food security. The study employed qualitative research to assess the contribution of subsistence farming to household food security in the study area. The study further incorporated quantitative research methods to address the limitations of qualitative research, particularly in terms of reproducibility and statistical robustness. The data collection process was conducted in two phases. Phase one involved administering a survey questionnaire to collect quantitative data from the 50 selected participants. Twenty participants from the first phase were selected for phase two of data collection, which involved qualitative interviews. To fulfill the study's aim and objectives, data were entered into Microsoft Excel and transferred to Statistical Packages for the Social Sciences (SPSS). Several SPSS tools were used to interpret and make sense of the gathered data. The findings show that although subsistence farming is essential for household food security and resilience, it also has obvious drawbacks in meeting all a household's demands. The results also highlighted the main obstacles that subsistence farmers must overcome, with market accessibility ranking as the most significant one, followed by a lack of capital and subpar farming tools. Rising heat, floods, and droughts brought on by climate change also threaten productivity and worsen household food poverty. Nearly half of farmers remain constrained by outdated practices and inadequate infrastructure, resulting in inequitable access to irrigation and water. The findings underscore the importance of empowering adolescents and women, expanding access to agricultural education, and providing financial support to promote subsistence farming, thereby achieving household food security.

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