Title : Effect of social capital and informal micro finance on household food security in limpopo province, South Africa
Abstract:
Abstract:
Food security remains a matter of growing concern in many parts of the world particularly in rural areas. Group-based programs such as micro?nance emerged as a vehicle for building social capital that may potentially play a major role in improving food security. The study employed a cross-sectional survey design involving a semi-structured questionnaire administered to 619 respondents (325 IMFIs participants and 290 IMFIs non-participants). Descriptive analysis was used to describe the social capital status of household and the various types of informal microfinance in Limpopo province (LP). The findings regarding the availability of social capital measured by trust reveal that about 52% had the high level of trust while 48% had low level of trust. In terms of the various types of informal microfinance Institutions (IMFIs), the findings reveal that there are three major types of IMFIs in LP. The results of the Binary logistic regression model reveals that that socio-economic variables such as household perception on IMFIs, household trust score, access to formal microfinance, total annual income and household dietary diversity score were significant in influencing household decision to participate in IMFIs in rural areas of LP. According to HFIAS results reveals that majority of household in Limpopo province experienced moderate food insecurity (35.5%) and mild food security (48.6%) insecurity while HDDs reveals that majority (44.4%) of the population were deemed severely food secure. The findings of the propensity score matching model shows a significant difference between participants and non-participants in terms of household food security status measure by HFIAS (p = 0.013) and HDDS (p = 0.050) implying that participation on IMFIs has a significant effect on household food security status in LP.
Keywords: Informal microfinance institutions; Household food security; Microfinance; Rural households; Social capital; Social collateral
