Role of home gardens in enhancing food security in rural and urban areas : a case study of Nkonkobe Municipality, Eastern Cape South Africa

In South Africa, home gardens are an important source of food and nutrition. In both urban and rural areas, home gardens have been a traditional way of providing food and offer a great potential for improving household food security and alleviating micronutrient deficiencies. In the Eastern Cape Province which is the second largest province in South Africa, and is characterized by poverty, home gardens can help enhance household food security through direct access to nutritionally-rich fresh vegetables. Home gardens are also becoming an important source of food and income, especially for poor households, in both urban and rural areas. the province. The findings illustrates that livelihood diversification may not be relevant for household welfare in the case of South Africa. However promoting livelihood diversification remain imperative for household welfare in the South Africa in the long-run. It further illustrate that gender of head, education, access to electricity, home agriculture are imperative for the improvement of household welfare. Hence the study recommends policy relating to conditional granting of cash grant support, intensification of rural development programmes, education affordable and accessible at all level and support home stead or subsistence agriculture This study was carried out to investigate the role of home gardens in addressing household food security in urban and rural areas of Nkonkobe Municipality. The study also identified the factors affecting the ownership of home gardens and food security. Data was collected from 160 households from both the urban and rural areas of the Nkonkobe Municipality. These households were selected through the use of stratified random sampling. Data was collected by a questionnaire was administered through face-to-face interviews. Frequencies and means were used to describe the general characteristics of the households as well as ownership patterns of home gardens. In order to determine the factors that influence home gardens and food security among the sampled households, a binary logistic regression model was adopted. The results show that the statistically significant variables, at the 5percent level, on food security are total income and home garden ownership. Food security was measured using the dietary diversity score. Location, access to land and education significantly affect the ownership of home gardens positively. In view of the research findings, several policy proposals are suggested. These include greater investment in programmes such as Massive food projects, Siyazondla and related home garden initiatives. Household income can be improved by promoting more non-agricultural activities in order to ensure household food security