M. Tech. (Food Service Management, Department of Hospitality and Tourism, Faculty of Human Sciences) -- Vaal University of Technology| / INTRODUCTION: Urban agriculture (UA) is increasingly being seen as an important
component of urban development and urban environmental management. Urban
agriculture is an alternative source of employment, household income, food and nutrition
security among many low-income urban dwellers. Investments in Urban agriculture in
South Africa are negatively influenced by a paucity of information on available land and
farming opportunities and lack of policy. A situation analysis in Eatonside concluded that
high unemployment rates, income-poverty, chronic household food insecurity and a high
prevalence of malnutrition existed. Efforts to increase food availability will bring overall
benefits to the community.
OBJECTIVES: The main objective of this project was to conduct an empirical study to
assess food insecurity training needs in order to develop an appropriate home gardening
training programme for gardeners in the informal settlements.
METHODS: A random selection of 143 households was made from the informal
settlement (refer baseline), but only 91 dwellers successfully completed the
questionnaires that were administered by four trained field workers. The resu Its were
analysed using the SPSS® 12.0 program.
MAJOR FINDINGS AND IMPLICATIONS: The results showed that 72.5 percent had
some knowledge of home gardening, whereas 29.7 percent had skills at all in home
gardening; 69.2 percent responded that they had some knowledge of soil management,
while 69.2 percent had no knowledge regarding planting management and only 13.2
percent had any knowledge regarding storage after harvesting and preparation of
vegetables. Out of all the 91 participants, only 29.7 percent had ever worked in a garden.
The researcher and fieldworkers were the first group to be trained so that they could
conduct the training of the participants with the assistance of the farmers. Since the
patiicipants were both male and female, no problems were encountered with digging the
ground, as every day after training the males made a point of preparing the ground for the
next day.
Training was conducted over two days for each group; there were four groups including
the fieldworkers. Groups 2 and 3 had 25 participants each while group 4 had 41
participants (n = 91). On day one, the trainers provided all the theory that the participants
would need to work in a garden. On day two, the trainers incorporated theory with
practical training which involved the participants.
CONCLUSION
It was found that most of the householders who participated in this project owned a
vegetable garden. Most of the participants felt that they had benefited greatly from the
training given in the gardening project, both because they were now able to have year round access to fresh vegetables, and because of the money-saving aspect / NRF -- CRC
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:vut/oai:digiresearch.vut.ac.za:10352/291 |
| Date | 06 1900 |
| Creators | Lekotoko, Queen Lebogang |
| Contributors | Selepe, B. M., Rutengwe, R. M. |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | xiv, 132 leaves : illustrations |
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