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The contribution of own food production to the nutrition of households in two neighbouring, rural, semi-arid settlements was investigated. A survey of a 10% probability sample (n=131) of households in Sekuruwe and Ga-Molekane in the Mokgalakwena Local Municipality, Waterberg District Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa, conducted in 2001, provided data on household composition, income (cash and kind), poverty status, expenditure and agriculture, including a detailed account of the types and quantities of food that were purchased during the month preceding the date of the interview. For each household the food obtained from the different types of agriculture they practised was quantified. Protein, iron and Vitamins A and C were selected as indicators to assess the contribution of purchased and own produced food to the food intake of households. Food composition tables were used to estimate the nutrient content of the different foods. To assess the contribution of irrigated home gardening to food intake of households, Drum & Drip micro-irrigation systems which enabled irrigated vegetable production on an area of 36 m2 were installed on the residential sites of 10 volunteer households in the study area. The results confirmed that income is the most important determinant of household food security in rural South Africa. However, food obtained from various types of dry-land agriculture contributed significantly to household nutrition and without farming the food security of households would be reduced, especially among the ultra-poor. Small-scale irrigated vegetable production was shown to have the potential to substantially raise the amount of the Vitamins A and C available to households but did not address the lack of protein in the diet of ultra-poor households and the lack of iron in the diet of all households.

Malawi is one of the least-developed countries in sub-Saharan Africa, with high rates of food insecurity, stunting, and micronutrient malnutrition. Zinc deficiency is associated with a number of health problems in Malawi, including diarrhea, pneumonia, stunting, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Maize is the staple of the national diet, yet the zinc nutrition of maize-based diets is compromised by the presence of phytate, a potent inhibitor of zinc absorption. Phytate levels can be reduced by basic household processing methods such as soaking, germinating, and fermenting, thus increasing the rate of zinc absorption. Novel research on sustainable approaches to addressing malnutrition using these kinds of food-based methods is urgently needed. Using food consumption data from the Malawi Third Integrated Household Survey and the latest models to predict zinc absorption, this study estimates the proportion of the population at risk of zinc deficiency, with a focus on vulnerable sub-groups including women and children. Next, it uses a simulation model to estimate the effects of reducing dietary phytate through processing and compares those results to an alternative simulation based on biofortification. Finally, this study examines the practical considerations necessary to promote improved maize processing using a behavior change communication approach and estimates the cost-effectiveness of the intervention compared to alternatives. The study"'s findings indicate that the initially high proportion of people at risk of zinc deficiency in Malawi can be substantially reduced by processing maize to reduce phytate. Compared to biofortification, the impact of processing was greater for all regions and sub-groups, and the advantage of processing was more pronounced in the South and in rural areas. An intervention to promote these improved methods using behavior change communication and nutrition education compares favorably against alternatives on a cost-effectiveness basis. A thorough analysis of culture and gender norms, the decision-making context, and the drivers of food choice in Malawi suggest that an intervention to promote household-level maize processing can be culturally appropriate and scalable if the context is properly considered. Given these findings, food-based approaches such as household level food processing should be given greater attention in policy and practice to sustainably improve food security and health outcomes. / 1 / Gregory Sclama

Promoting household food security and reducing malnutrition rates of a growing population with the same amount of water is a challenge facing South African nutritionists and agriculturalists alike. Apart from non-food related effects of agriculture in general, the crop and livestock production practices of the South African smallholder farmer may have nutritional implications, primarily when practised on residential land and resulting in home consumption. Yet, few studies have systematically investigated the impact thereof. It appears that crop diversification, gender issues and nutrition education are among the important factors that strengthen the link between agriculture and nutrition. Since food production is the most water-intensive activity in society, nutritional water productivity (i.e. nutrition per volume water) of foods and the nutritional water footprint of diets should be investigated in order to achieve a sustainable solution. This implies that both the demand for a diet consisting predominantly of water-productive plant products, as well as the supply thereof, be addressed.

The contribution of own food production to the nutrition of households in two neighbouring, rural, semi-arid settlements was investigated. A survey of a 10% probability sample (n=131) of households in Sekuruwe and Ga-Molekane in the Mokgalakwena Local Municipality, Waterberg District Municipality, Limpopo Province, South Africa, conducted in 2001, provided data on household composition, income (cash and kind), poverty status, expenditure and agriculture, including a detailed account of the types and quantities of food that were purchased during the month preceding the date of the interview. For each household the food obtained from the different types of agriculture they practised was quantified. Protein, iron and Vitamins A and C were selected as indicators to assess the contribution of purchased and own produced food to the food intake of households. Food composition tables were used to estimate the nutrient content of the different foods. To assess the contribution of irrigated home gardening to food intake of households, Drum & Drip micro-irrigation systems which enabled irrigated vegetable production on an area of 36 m2 were installed on the residential sites of 10 volunteer households in the study area. The results confirmed that income is the most important determinant of household food security in rural South Africa. However, food obtained from various types of dry-land agriculture contributed significantly to household nutrition and without farming the food security of households would be reduced, especially among the ultra-poor. Small-scale irrigated vegetable production was shown to have the potential to substantially raise the amount of the Vitamins A and C available to households but did not address the lack of protein in the diet of ultra-poor households and the lack of iron in the diet of all households.

While composite indicators are considered robust in measuring food security, outdated data and outliers challenge their reliability. Outdated data can occur when national databases are not frequently updated while outliers are extremely small or large values in a study. Outdated data could be referred to as missing current data in composite indicators used for annual benchmarking exercises, where data must be frequently updated. Besides hindering useful information within an index, outdated data could also result in outliers in a database, especially when the outdated or missing current data are imputed by estimation. Studies that have assessed the robustness of composite indicators highlight that outdated data and outliers could bias results, thereby hindering an index's reliability. However, depending on the methods used when constructing a composite indicator, some methods can be considered robust even with the presence of outliers in a data point. Outdated national data could hinder countries from tracking the progress of international, national or regional commitments, such as the Sustainable Development Goals, while outliers could act as an unintended benchmark. This study assessed the impacts of outdated data and outliers on Kenya's scores and rankings in the Global Food Security Index (GFSI). The study objective was achieved by assessing Kenya's performance in the 2019 GFSI result before and after removing outliers from the GFSI data points and updating Kenya's outdated indicators. Winsorisation was used to remove the outliers from the GFSI database, while the Spearman correlation and Paired t-tests were used to test for the statistical significance of the outdated data and outliers. The study revealed that while Kenya's 2019 GFSI database did not have outliers, outliers in other countries' data points impacted Kenya's score and rank. For example, the winsorisation of outliers for other countries reduced Kenya's 2019 overall GFSI score by six points. Moreover, thirteen indicators in Kenya's 2019 GFSI database were found to be outdated. However, despite Kenya's score improving from updating the outdated data, the impact was minimal to increase the GFSI's mean score for all countries. That is, updating Kenya's outdated indicators was found not to differ significantly from zero. The study concluded that Kenya's score and rank in the 2019 GFSI were affected by the outdated data in Kenya's database and outliers in other countries' data. The study, therefore, recommended that Kenya should update its national database and allow open access to the national data while the GFSI should identify and remove outliers from the data points. / Mini Dissertation (MSc Agric (Agricultural Economics))--University of Pretoria, 2021. / Mastercard Foundation Scholarship / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / MSc Agric (Agricultural Economics) / Unrestricted

Despite the existing body of literature dealing with policies and policy change and the impact of institutions on these changes, very little is understood about how food security policies emerge on the policy agenda and what influences their design. This study used a set theory analysis to investigate the role of political institutions, institutional environment and the structure of a country’s economy in determining its food security policy choices, and what configurations of these determinants enabled or constrained food security policy outcomes in eight African countries. A taxonomy was created to organise the food security policy outcomes against four criteria: i) Policy coordination (the degree to which different policies consistently address the cross-cutting aspects of food security); ii) Geographic scope (distinguishing policies that apply and are implemented across the country from those targeting a specific geographic area); iii) Orientation (distinguishing producer- from consumer-oriented policies); and iv) Level of state involvement (dealing with the state’s engagement in the provision of goods and services as an approach to governance that involves the assertion of authority or its conscious limitation). The food security policies of Benin, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi and Mozambique were evaluated against these criteria. The conditions analysed included constitutional rules (electoral and governance systems, veto players), institutional environments (accountability, trust, state legitimacy and capacity) and structural economic characteristics. A set-theoretic analysis was performed on the eight countries’ policies. Crisp and fuzzy analyses were applied to the same dataset to identify empirical patterns of sufficiency, necessity and INUS (insufficient but non-redundant parts of a condition, which is itself unnecessary but sufficient for the occurrence of the effect) conditions. Expectations drawn from the literature were examined against the logical results of the analysis. The results identified the causally relevant combinations for each policy criteria. Based on analytical results, an Excel-based tool was developed to check for contradictory predictions in all African countries, informing on the level of generalisation of these findings outside the sample. This work shows that formal political institutions matter for food security outcomes, but not everywhere. When (some) constitutional rules are in combination with conditions pertaining to country structural characteristics and informal institutions, policy outcomes can be explained and predicted. This work contributes to understanding the design and implementation of food security policies in Africa. These insights have benefit for both governments and donors. The inclusion of factors relating to the institutional environment enabled an innovative operationalisation of the suppositions related to neo-patrimonialism, providing insight into how formal political institutions and informal rules related to food security policy work in Africa. However, the focus of analysis on exogenous factors, rather than sector-specific governance in a country, facilitates more general (and generalisable) findings. / Thesis (PhD (Rural Development))--Univeristy of Pretoria, 2020. / Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development / PhD (Rural Development) / Unrestricted

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The research attempted to demystify the Zimbabwean land reform that was spear headed by war veterans’ in Zimbabwe. This research investigated the impact of the Fast Track Land Reform Programme (FTLRP) in 2000 on Household Food Security. It was generally assumed that the programme did not improve Household Food Security. To verify that assertion the research used questionnaires in a survey research design. The questionnaires were administered to 322 household heads that had been selected by the random stratified sampling method in Mutare District. The results established that Household Food Security in Mutare District improved after the implementation of the FTLRP. The national grain storage however was depleted because the new farmers reduced the production levels set by the former white farmers. The research therefore recommends an orderly and sustainable transition of Land Reform in future programmes to enhance national grain reserves. This also further improves the Household Food Security.

xiv, 126 p. : ill., map. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / The government of Malawi is being lauded internationally for having ostensibly eliminated hunger within its borders through a subsidy that makes available chemical fertilizers to smallholder farmers. Development scholarship and policy have recently turned toward promoting a "new" Green Revolution in Africa for the establishment of food security and the advancement of economic development. Many view the increased use of chemical fertilizer in Malawian agriculture and the resultant rise in maize yieldsdescribed by such publications as the New York Times as the "Malawi Mirac1e"-as evidence that the prescribed NGR is indeed a recipe for success. This thesis places the subsidy in its historical and theoretical framework and discusses the extent to which production-end strategies accomplish the goals of food security. Also discussed are nonproduction measures that are essential to creating a reliable and accessible food system. / Committee in Charge: Peter A. Walker, Chair; Derrick L. Hindery