The objective of this research is to investigate the food security, food diversity and coping
strategies used to access food in households in the Eastern Cape rural village of Timane in
Idutywa, Eastern Cape, South Africa.
A cross-sectional survey design was used in which a Coping Strategy Index questionnaire
designed by Maxwell and Caldwell (2008) and a HDD questionnaire was used to gather data
interviewing respondents. This study was conducted in the rural community of Timane which
was divided into geographical groups from which household were randomly chosen. A total
of 60 adults representing 60 selected households were interviewed to provide information on
household dietary diversity.
Data was collected on the socio-biographic and HHD parameters of households. Data was
analyzed and presented as correlation, percentages, means and SDs. Up to 72% of household
received state grants and the Spearman’s correlation between number of children and HDD
score was r = 0.38 while that between number of adults in households and HDD score was r =
-0.93. Food security in the Timane community largely depends on state grants and HDD
increases moderately with the increase in children and decreases with the increase in adults
per household. The majority of the households (72%) received state grants as a source of
income within which old-age pensions constitute 28% and child grants 38%. The Spearman’s
correlation coefficient between the number of children in households of respondents and CSI
was 0.78 (P < 001) while that between the number of adults in households and CSIS was 0.2
(P < 001).
Household in the rural community of Timane community were found to be food insecure and
this gets severe with the increase in the number of children in households.