Towards understanding the dilemma of Food Security in the rural areas of South Africa

Although South Africa is food secure on a country level, large numbers of households within the country remain food insecure. The Department of Agriculture in South Africa has recognized several key food security challenges in the Integrated Food Security Strategy for South Africa (IFSS) but South Africa still lacks specific and accepted methods to measure food security and currently has no regularised way of monitoring the food security status of its population. This research proposes to provide an in-depth comprehension of the social and economic aspects of food security at district and household levels in the Limpopo province. It further aims to identify the factors influencing food security at household level which is based on four major food security components: food availability, food accessibility, food utilization and food system stability. A combination of several multivariate analyses has been used to identify the main household characteristics determining the household’s food security status.