Determinants of home gardening participation among rural households: evidence from Ingquza Hill local municipality, South Africa

The participation of rural households in home garden production, which is a premise of income and food security, is very low. Therefore, this study investigated factors influencing rural households’ participation in home gardens from Ingquza Hill Local Municipality, South Africa. This is against a background where literature and development circles suggest that household home gardens can significantly improve food security and household income. Despite the fact that home gardens are a source of income and food security, rural households’ participation is claimed to be very low, suggesting several factors worth explaining. The study used cross-sectional survey data from rural communities of the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa (n = 200), to estimate participation drivers. The initial sample was stratified into two groups; home gardeners and non-home gardeners. For home gardening participants, a census was carried out due to their limited numbers. For non-participants, convenience and purposive sampling was used focusing on households with similar socioeconomic characteristics and close to participants for pairing purposes. Using stratified purposive convenience sampling, two homogeneous mutually exclusive strata were created (stratum “A”; “HGs participants”: n = 87 and stratum “B”; “HGs non-participants”: n = 113) for an independent analysis. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to analyze the data. Regression results revealed that home garden participation was influenced by gender, education, household income, extension services, access to arable land, and credit access. This paper concluded that education, household income, access to extension services, and access to arable land were the major factors capable of positively influencing household participation in home gardening. In contrast, gender and access to credit were negatively associated with household participation in home gardening. Therefore, the paper calls for government policies and intervention programs targeting home gardening to improve rural household participation in home gardens.