Evaluation of the impact of a household food security programme in QwaQwa using a coping strategy index.
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Date
2005
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Abstract
The Free State Department of Agriculture distributed food security packages to Qwaqwa
households in 2003. The purpose of distributing food security packages was to improve
the food security status of poor households. Thirty households received food security
packages to the value of R4500.00 each between March and May 2003. The packages were
designed to include: garden fencing materials, gardening tools, winter and summer seeds,
fertiliser, water hoses, twenty village chickens, chicken feed and a portable, ready made
poultry cage. This study sets out to evaluate the impact of these packages distributed by the
Department of Agriculture to Qwaqwa households by comparing dietary diversity,
frequency of consumption, income sources, coping strategy applications and food security
status. Maxwell et al 's (2003) Coping Strategy Index (CSI) was used to determine relative
food security status. Data on household demographics, food consumption patterns and
consumption coping strategies was collected from 30 recipient households and 30 non-recipient
households whose names were on the waiting list for food security packages in
Qwaqwa.
The results of the study showed that the packages improved food security in recipient
households. First, the frequency of consumption of most foods included in packages
(carrot, beetroot, eggs as by-product of chicken and chicken) was higher among recipient
households. Food consumption patterns improved in recipient households as more
households diversified food intake. Second, some coping strategies applied by recipient
and non-recipient households were similar, but the frequency of application of these
strategies differed between households in the two groups. The frequency of application of
similar strategies (eating less preferred food, purchasing food on credit, visiting friends to
eat with them, restricting consumption of adults in order for small children to eat,
borrowing food, sending children to visit relatives, skipping entire meal eaten in a day,
reducing meal sizes, and sending household members to beg) was higher in non-recipient
households.
The classification of strategies according to severity levels (least severe, moderately severe,
severe and very severe) was done by community members. Recipient households applied
the least severe strategies and moderately severe coping strategies more than non-recipient
households. Non-recipient households applied more severe and very severe strategies more
often than recipient households. As a result, recipient households' average coping strategy
index score was lower than that of the non-recipient households, suggesting that food
security packages improved recipient households' food security status.
Lack of suitable scavenging space for the chickens and lack of knowledge of freely
available chicken feed constrained the impact of the packages on household food security.
Recommendations include training of extension officers and households in village chicken
rearing and harvesting of chicken feed. It is recommended that the Department of
Agriculture should adhere to its original plan of giving twenty-month old chicken to
households and should use the Coping Strategy Index for identifying food insecure
households and monitoring and evaluation of the impact of the food security programme.
Description
Thesis (M.Agric.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.
Keywords
Food security--Free State--QwaQwa., Food supply--Free State--QwaQwa., Households--Free State--QwaQwa., Food consumption--Free State--QwaQwa., Household surveys--Free State--QwaQwa., Nutrition--Free State--QwaQwa--Evaluation., Poultry--Free State--QwaQwa., Rural development--Free State--QwaQwa., Theses--Food security.