Rural Household Food Security Status among Indigenous Leafy Vegetables Producers and Non Producers: Evidence from Coffee Bay, South Africa A. Mayekiso, A. Taruvinga, and A. Mushunje The University of Fort Hare, South Africa Email: anelemayekiso@ymail.com, {ataruvinga, amushunje}@ufh.ac.za Abstract—Indigenous Leafy Vegetables (ILVs), despite having a clear potential to improve rural household food and nutritional security, the evidence base for this association still remains poor, missing, mixed and inconsistent. With the emerging interest of linking biodiversity to food security in the face of climate change, there is therefore a need to appraise the ILVs - food and nutrition security nexus. This paper employed descriptive statistics and household food security proxy indices on a sample of 238 randomly selected rural households (ILVs producers and non producers) to appraise the connection between ILVs and household food security. Results reveal significant improved household food security status of producers compared to non producers worth further probing with robust models (Propensity Score Matching) on wider geographical areas. Index Terms—indigenous leafy vegetables, household food security I. INTRODUCTION According to Asfaw [1, p. 316], indigenous vegetables are described as “edible plants that are biologically indigenous to an area, while introduced vegetables are those vegetables that have been introduced into a particular area and have not physiologically adjusted to the local conditions and subsequently require many agricultural inputs”. Against this background, literature highlights that, most communities affected by poverty and under nutrition live in areas rich in biodiversity including wild and indigenous vegetables [2]. Of interest to note is the fact that, ILVs have been reported to be good in nutritional qualities such as macro and micronutrients [3]. However, there is still a high prevalence of malnutrition; especially micronutrient deficiencies among low income group of the population in South Africa [3]. Thus far, the use of indigenous vegetables has been proposed as part of the solutions to the problems of micronutrient and malnutrition among these populations [3]-[5]. Despite claimed several benefits; production of ILVs is still characterized by low volumes [6], [7] and currently declining [8]. Their production is more common in rural Manuscript received July 5, 2016; revised November 21, 2016. areas on small scale mainly for subsistence purposes with minor informal trade record [8]. The paper therefore explores food groups consumed by rural households and their household food insecurity access status based two different groups (ILVs producers and non producers). II. PROBLEM STATEMENT There is limited literature with respect of the contribution of ILVs to food security. The few that is available seem to have focused more on nutritional components of ILVs [9], [10] as well as benefits of consuming ILVs or any other indigenous foods at the expense of how production of ILVs can contribute to household food security for the rural population [3]. The observed lack of household food security strategies and policies that include ILVs and other wild foods further suggest lack of scientific evidence to link ILVs and other wild foods to household food security. Thus far, given the claimed benefits of wild foods (ILVs) need arises for researchers to provide scientific evidence on the ILVs food security nexus across various localities. III. OBJECTIVES  To estimate food groups consumed by ILVs producers and non-producers.  To estimate food insecurity access status of ILVs producers and non-producers. IV. RELATED LITERATURE Hart [11] noted that; (a) indigenous vegetables have an ability to grow relatively well in semi-arid areas where other exotic plants fail to grow, (b) ability to provide at least two food stuffs during their life cycle and (c) the ability of either the fruit or the leaves, or both, to be dried and stored for consumption in the winter months. Thus far, these vegetables can make a significant contribution in terms of household food security. Literature also argues that although ILVs may be consumed in small quantities by many rural households; they influence the intake of cereal staples, manage hunger and play a central role in household food security for the poorer rural communities Journal of Advanced Agricultural Technologies Vol. 4, No. 2, June 2017 ©2017 Journal of Advanced Agricultural Technologies doi: 10.18178/joaat.4.2.190-195 190