The impact of food loss on food security among smallholder vegetable farmers in Capricorn District of Limpopo Province, South Africa

Abstract

Food loss remains a great threat to global food systems, and food insecurity remains a persistent challenge among households, particularly within developing and emerging economies. Several studies have attempted to unravel the effect that food loss have on food security; however, limited research has focused on how food loss occurring during the early production stage influence food security of primary food producers. The research used a quantitative research design to examine how food loss influence food security outcomes. The study was carried out within the Capricorn District Municipality located in Limpopo Province, South Africa, where a sample of 230 smallholder vegetable farmers were interviewed using a multistage random sampling method. The study made use of descriptive measures to summarize the socioeconomic attributes of the respondents, where the results revealed a slightly higher male gender (54.8%) than their female counterpart (45.2%). The findings indicate that most respondents were adults with age ranging from 36 to 59 years (47.4%). Many of the participants (41.3%) reported earnings below R50 000 per year. To establish how food loss influence food security among the farming households, the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) tool was employed to ascertain the food security status of the respondents, alongside an Ordered Probit Model (OPM) employed to explore the nexus between food loss and food security. The results of HFIAS show that 70% of the respondents experienced food insecurity, with only 30% being food secure. The results obtained from the OPM indicated that food loss is positively linked to food security status(p<0.000) with a marginal effect indicating that a rise in the amount of food lost lowers the chances of households remaining food secure by 11.8 percentage points while raising the risk of falling into deeper food insecurity by 8.8 percentage points. The study further found that about 89% of the respondents reported experiencing food loss at the production stage, followed by postharvest (69%) and harvesting (47%). Moreover, poor market access (54.4%), pests and disease infestation (37%), and unfavorable weather conditions (26%) were identified as major causes of food loss among smallholder vegetable farmers. Therefore, improving access to market would enable farmers to sell their produce on time, and adopting Integrated Pest Management (IPM) can reduce losses caused by pests and diseases. Adoption of climate-smart agricultural practices are also essential for addressing losses stemming from extreme climatic conditions. These interventions together can reduce food loss, increase productivity and income and ultimately enhance household food security status of the primary producers.