Food insecurity in South Africa: To what extent can social grants and consumption of wild foods eradicate hunger?

Chakona, Gamuchirai

Title: Food insecurity in South Africa: To what extent can social grants and consumption of wild foods eradicate hunger?
Creator: Chakona, Gamuchirai
Creator: Shackleton, Charlie M
Subject: To be catalogued
Date Issued: 2019
Date: 2019
Type: text
Type: article
Identifier: http://hdl.handle.net/10962/179541
Identifier: vital:43081
Identifier: xlink:href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2019.02.001"
Description: As the world continues to face widespread food insecurity, achieving food security for all at all times is increasingly complicated. In South Africa, social grants and the use of wild foods have been reported as some ways to improve household food insecurity and reduce poverty. The study examined if social grants and consumption of wild foods alleviate food insecurity in South Africa. Household surveys and focus group discussions were conducted along the rural-urban continuum in three South African towns situated along an agro-ecological gradient. We explored the differences in household food security indicators, mean monthly food expenditure and wealth index between households receiving social grants, households consuming wild foods, and those who did not. Households receiving social grants were more food insecure with lower mean monthly food expenditure and wealth index than those who did not. Overall all towns, the use of wild foods improved household food security which was not true within towns where wild foods were mostly consumed by low income and more food insecure households. Social grants alone cannot eradicate food insecurity as the money is not enough to cater for all household needs whilst wild foods can potentially alleviate household food insecurity. As food prices continue to increase gradually and worsening household food insecurity, ways to shift ‘income circumstances’ of households and promote the use and consumption of wild foods which may increase dietary diversity and diversifying food access. Focus should be placed on capacity building, employment creation and promoting awareness on own food production which is one way to improve food security of poor households rather than depending on purchases from the grant money alone.
Format: computer
Format: online resource
Format: application/pdf
Format: 1 online resource (8 pages)
Format: pdf
Publisher: Elsevier
Language: English
Relation: World Development Perspectives
Relation: Gamuchirai Chakona, Charlie M. Shackleton, Food insecurity in South Africa: To what extent can social grants and consumption of wild foods eradicate hunger?, World Development Perspectives, Volume 13, 2019, Pages 87-94, ISSN 2452-2929, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.wdp.2019.02.001.
Relation: World Development Perspectives volume 13 number 87-94 2019 2452-2929
Rights: Publisher
Rights: Use of this resource is governed by the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License (Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Rights: Open Access

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