Analysing the contribution of urban agriculture towards urban household food security in informal settlement areas

Jan Willem Swanepoel, Johan Adam Van Niekerk and P. Tirivanhu

Development Southern Africa, 2021, vol. 38, issue 5, 785-798

Abstract: Rapid urban growth due to unprecedented rural–urban migration is putting pressure on urban food systems. The general impression is that households engaged in urban agriculture experience improved nutritional status, higher health standards and provide towards income and employment. However, empirical research findings are limited and inconsistent. This study provides empirical knowledge on the urban agriculture–food security nexus. Data was gathered from a sample of 220 households comprising of those with small household (backyard) garden projects funded by the Department of Agriculture in the Western Cape, South Africa, and a control group. Propensity score matching was used to determine the contribution of urban agriculture to household food security. The findings indicated that households engaged in urban agriculture were benefiting from dietary diversity and the generation of income through the production of various food products. There was, however, no indication of a significant positive contribution of urban agriculture towards food security.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/0376835X.2021.1920888 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:deveza:v:38:y:2021:i:5:p:785-798

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CDSA20

DOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2021.1920888

Access Statistics for this article

Development Southern Africa is currently edited by Marie Kirsten

More articles in Development Southern Africa from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().