Document Type

Honors Project - Open Access

Abstract

In post-Apartheid South Africa, large-scale commercial farming is promoted by the state as the only viable agricultural development model, while small-scale agriculture is marginalized in development discourse and the national land reform program aimed at addressing historical wrongs. However, food sovereignty movements across the Global South, such as Via Campesina, have promoted small-scale gardening for communities to gain control over their food systems and prevent the distancing of food from the labor that produced it. The research question investigated is whether people in the Genadendal area who grow their own food from gardens have better dietary diversity outcomes and increased agency over their food system than those who do not grow any of their own food. This thesis offers insights into the ability of small-scale gardening to advance community-level food sovereignty by comparing the dietary diversity outcomes, livelihood outcomes, and degrees of agency between gardeners and non-gardeners in Genadendal, Western Cape, South Africa, using metrics including the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) and Minimum Dietary Diversity for Women (MDDW), alongside qualitative interviews which were analyzed for salient responses. Dietary diversity scores were statistically significantly higher for gardeners compared to non-gardeners. Additionally, the experiences of gardeners indicate that their livelihood outcomes as a whole are more secure than non-gardeners’, especially that of agricultural laborers, although these livelihood outcomes are more directly affected by additional factors besides gardening. During Apartheid, the subsistence gardening system was eroded by the pull factor of finding employment on commercial farms and in cities, as well as the lack of funding for non-white agriculturalists, which decreased the agency over food consumption among both gardeners and non-gardeners, although small-scale gardening organizations in Genadendal are working to reverse this trend. Despite the continued prevalence of commercial agriculture in South Africa, small-scale gardening allows for communities to secure improved livelihood outcomes by offering an alternative to the dominant agrarian system that has persisted into South Africa’s democratic era.

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