ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Sustain. Food Syst.
Sec. Nutrition and Sustainable Diets
Volume 9 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fsufs.2025.1601914
Coping strategies for Food Insecurity among Rural Households: An observational Study of Adaptive Mechanisms
Provisionally accepted
- 1Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
- 2University of Limpopo, Sovenga, Limpopo, South Africa
- 3University of Buea, Buea, Cameroon
- 4Agricultural Research Council of South Africa (ARC-SA), Pretoria, South Africa
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Background: Despite South Africa being food secure at the national level, overall food insecurity persists in rural communities with inadequate resources. The current study aims to investigate the state of food security and identify the coping strategies employed by households in response to food shortages within the rural communities.The design was a cross-sectional descriptive survey. Two rural communities were purposefully selected; thereafter, household informants were conveniently selected. A researcher-administered validated questionnaire was used to collect data on demographic characteristics, food security and coping strategies from 280 households with 2,300 family members. Quantitative analysis was done using SPSS version 26.0.Results: Food insecurity remains a major concern as 36.8% of households are still experiencing hunger and employed 25 strategies during periods of food shortages. The top adaptive strategies were reliance on inexpensive and culturally less favored foods (50.3%) and getting food from friends and relatives (40%).Conclusions: Food insecurity was remarkably high; however, households devised coping strategies for survival. The development of interventions to eradicate hunger should remain a key commitment of decision-makers and be informed by the coping strategies.
Keywords: coping behavior, Households, Food insecurity, Hunger, Rural Population, South Africa
Received: 28 Mar 2025; Accepted: 05 Aug 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mbhenyane, Makuse, Ayuk and Mthokozisi. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Xikombiso Mbhenyane, Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch, South Africa
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