Impact of Market Participation on Household Food Security among Smallholder Irrigators in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract

Food insecurity is a global challenge. The reduction of hunger is a Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) target widely seen as a measure for evaluating the progress of the well-being of rural people. This study aimed to investigate the impact of collective action and market participation on household food security. Data were collected using a structured survey questionnaire from 243 randomly selected households in Msinga Local Municipality. The binary probit model findings revealed that farmers’ group membership, market participation, gender, the total number of cattle owned, farm income, and credit access increased the likelihood of a food-secure household. This paper’s findings have crucial implications for the government and other development agencies for improving household food-security status. The findings identified collective action and market participation to be contributing to food-insecurity alleviation. The government and private organisations need to encourage and empower existing farmers’ groups through community mobilisation.

Keywords

• food security
• binary probit
• smallholder farmers
• market participation
• collective action