Urban agriculture in Nelson Mandela Bay: a case study

Abstract

Urban agriculture has gained importance due to the rise of both urban poverty and unemployment. In countries such as Malaysia, urban agriculture addresses food security by providing urban dwellers with access to nutritious, safe and cost-effective food. The rising food prices and unemployment in South Africa have put food security of the urban poor in a precarious position and whilst the benefits of urban agriculture have been researched, the main problem identified was that residents in Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) were not practising urban agriculture. Thus, this study aims to identify the enablers and barriers of urban agriculture in NMB. The positivism paradigm was adopted for this study. The study was an exploratory study and used Holland Park as a case study. Holland Park is situated in the centre of the city of Port Elizabeth, also known as NMB and is surrounded by Mercantile Hospital, Aspen Pharmaceutical Company, Mondelez International (previously Cadbury) and Morewag Primary School. It falls within ward seven namely the Greenacres/North End cluster of the Nelson Mandela Bay geographical area. This area consists of approximately 1189 residents and most women are housewives. This area was chosen due to the high rate of unemployment amongst women. A sample of 300 was drawn from residents in Holland Park. The selection of the respondents was based on convenience sampling. A cross sectional study was conducted and data were collected using a structured questionnaire. The measuring instrument used an existing questionnaire. The validity and reliability of the measuring instrument were confirmed using construct validity and internal reliability. Exploratory factor analysis was undertaken and six factors were extracted, namely attitude, food availability, lifestyle, awareness, perceptions and knowledge. These factors were thus identified as the enablers and barriers of urban agriculture. Data collected were subject to several statistical analyses – these included both descriptive and inferential statistics. Pearson’s product moment correlations were conducted and findings revealed that all factors except food availability are significantly and positively correlated to the dependent variable, urban agriculture. In addition, food availability showed a negative correlation and a high positive correlation was reported between urban agriculture and knowledge. Hereafter, multiple regression analysis was performed, to identify the strength of the effect that the independent variables, namely attitude, food availability, awareness, lifestyle, perceptions and knowledge have on the dependent variable, urban agriculture. This allowed the researcher to make conclusions as to whether the independent variables are enablers or barriers, depending on the strength of effect. Thus, the enablers identified for this study were attitude, lifestyle and perceptions. These factors were all positive and significantly related to urban agriculture. Food availability was negatively related to urban agriculture, indicating that the more residents had food available, the less they would practise or participate in urban agriculture. Thus, food availability was found to be a barrier to practising urban agriculture in NMB. Finally, awareness and knowledge (under multiple regression analysis) appeared to have not been significantly related to urban agriculture – as such it was insignificant and could not be regarded an enabler nor a barrier. In order to establish whether relationships existed between the demographic factors (age, gender, qualification, employment status and being a breadwinner) and the independent variables (attitude, food availability, lifestyle, awareness, knowledge and perceptions) investigated in this study, an analysis of variance was undertaken. The results indicated that gender, employment status and being a breadwinner were not related to any of the factors. However, qualification had a significant relationship with attitude (p<0.000), awareness (p<0.004), knowledge (p<0.040) and perceptions (p<0.000), indicating that residents who had a post-matric qualification indicated a positive attitude towards urban agriculture and were more aware of the benefits of urban agriculture towards one’s health and the environment. Findings also revealed that having a post-matric qualification influenced residents’ knowledge with regard to growing food in a sustainable manner, such as using recyclable materials (as holding containers) when practising urban agriculture. In addition, having a post-matric qualification influenced residents’ perceptions regarding urban agriculture, these related to teaching children the importance of gardening (amongst others). In conclusion, findings indicated that residents had an interest in urban agriculture and had some knowledge with regard to growing their own fruit and vegetables