Approaching the interviewees: data collection methods 45

A questionnaire survey was selected as the main method for data collection. The survey method was suitable as it allows one to look at relationships between and amongst different characteristics, sites and sub-categories (Secor, 2010). The main advantages of making use of a survey are that firstly it enables the researcher to summarise the basic characteristics of the sampled population and secondly it presents findings that are statistically valid and accurate for the sampled population (Secor, 2010).The questions were standardised but some of them were open ended and left room

for further explanation and elaboration by the respondents. Thus the questionnaire incorporated a small element of the interviewing method which probes certain issues more in depth and allows for the discovery of why people act and feel the way they do (McDowell, 2010).

The survey administered to the urban cultivators and the livestock farmers consisted of three sections. The first section dealt with the household socio-economic information where questions on the number of people in household, employed and unemployed people in the household, number of social grant recipients, total income and length of residence in Soweto were asked. The second section has questions on the urban agricultural production system with questions on types of crops, livestock, labour force, equipment and natural resource use, access to information and other resources, household consumption of crops and potential to save or generate an income from selling vegetables and livestock. The third section had two sub-sections which are both used as measure of food security. These were the Household Dietary Diversity Scale (HDDS) and the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS).Their origin and effective use will be explained below.

The HDDS indicates the number different food groups consumed over a given time period, 24 hours in this study, in the household, see table 4.1, (Swindale and Bilinsky, 2006; Crush et al., 2010). Participants were asked about the food they had consumed in last 24 hours, where each type of food would fit into a food group, there is a maximum of 12 food groups, which make the maximum score 12. Therefore the more food groups consumed in the specified time will reflect a quantified measure of the dietary diversity and the household food access at that time. The HDDS is, according to Swindale and Bilinsky (2006) a good proxy indicator because firstly, a more diversified diet is associated with improved outcomes in birth weight, child anthropometric status and improved haemoglobin concentrations and secondly it’s correlated with protein adequacy and household income.

Access is defined as “the ability to acquire sufficient quality and quantity of food to meet all household members’ nutritional requirement for productive lives” (Swindale and Bilinsky, 2006). Therefore in the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS) access to sufficient quantity and quality of food is measured, refer to table 4.2. To calculate the score, each household is considered individually, and the key respondent is asked nine questions, about ‘frequency of occurrence’. In the case of this research six questions were asked. As the interviews were conducted in an African language there were a lot of similarities in the questions during translation, thus three questions were removed. Generally the questions look at how often in the past four weeks the household didn’t have enough food for the whole family, and how often it occurred. Scores were given as follows, if it never occurred they score 0, if it occurred, the respondent needs to specify how often,

rarely: once or twice (1), sometimes: three to eight times (2) and often: more than eight times (3). The minimum score is 0 and the maximum is 18. Thus a higher score means more food insecurity is experienced at the household while a low score means less food insecurity is experiences (Coates et al, 2007; Frayne, 2010). The data collected using the HFIAS enables the monitoring of food assistance programs and to report on the national prevalence of household food insecurity. On a national scale this scale can enable governments to assess household food insecurity access for geographic targeting and detect changes in situations of the population over time. Nevertheless, it was decided to assess household food insecurity (access) at a more local scale, only for the sample in the study.

Table 4.1: HDDS table for foods consumed from the 12 food groups

Code Food Yes No Extra detail

A

Any bread, mabele, rice, noodles, biscuits, scones, fat-cakes, other food made from millet, sorghum,

maize, wheat

B Any potatoes and sweet potatoes or any foods

made from roots and tubers

C Any yellow or orange and Green vegetables

D Any Fruits

E Any beef, pork, lamb, mutton, chicken or other

birds, liver, kidney, hearts and other organ meats

F Any Eggs

G Any fresh fish or dried fish

H Any foods made from beans, peas or lentils I Any dairy products: milk, yogurt, cheese,

J Any foods contain fat, butter or oil

K Any sugar or honey

L Condiments: tea, coffee, sauces, cool drink, juice Total

Source: Adapted from Swindale and Bilinsky, (2006).

Table 4.2: A Section of the HFIAS used during the interview process

No. Question Response Options Code

1

In the past four weeks, was there ever no food to eat of any kind in your household because of resources to get food?

No=0 (skip to 2) Yes=1

1a

How often did this happen? 1=rarely (once or twice in the past four weeks)2=sometimes (three to eight times in the past four weeks). 3=often (more than eight times in past four weeks)

2

In the past four weeks, were you or any household member not able to eat the kinds of foods you preferred because of a lack of resources?

No=0 (skip to 3) Yes=1

No. Question Response Options Code

2a

How often did this happen? 1=rarely (once or twice in the past four weeks) 2=sometimes (three to eight times in the past four weeks). 3=often (more than eight times in past four weeks)

3

In the past four weeks, did you or any household member have to eat a limited variety of foods due to a lack of resources?

No=0 (skip to 4) Yes=1

3a

How often did this happen? 1=rarely (once or twice in the past four weeks) 2=sometimes (three to eight times in the past four weeks). 3=often (more than eight times in past four weeks) Source: Adapted from Coates et al, (2007).

B Interviews

The structured interview was selected as an appropriate method to get information from the community project respondents as well as the Food Gardens Foundation. According to Ekhol and Franson (1987:9-17), structured interviews are conducted either by help of a survey with open- ended questions or fixed alternative answers. The two interview guides were fairly short but contained open ended questions in order to get as much information as possible from respondents in the community projects. The first interview guide designed for the community projects basically probes questions related to the length of the project and how it was started, the number of people involved, problems they face, access to resources, their projects potential to generate money in the informal or formal market and lastly what their general concerns are on urban agriculture. The second interview guide for the Foundation asks questions related to the role of FGF in Soweto in terms of employing people in the area, the projects they initiate, their success stories and how they plan to incorporate people who do not know that the foundation exists in Soweto and is there to serve them.