Flooding left most surveyed households in a South African village food insecure

Crop losses, damaged roads and weaker purchasing power disrupted food access, leading households to ration meals and seek help from social networks.

Editorial illustration — not from the study.

Researchers examined how flooding affected food security in Hamakuya Village in Limpopo Province, South Africa. They combined household questionnaires with focus groups, interviews and rainfall data covering 2020–2023.

Residents reported that major floods in 2020/2021 and 2023 destroyed crops and damaged transport links. These disruptions reduced food production, restricted access to markets and weakened households’ ability to buy food, leading some families to preserve food, ration meals and rely on social networks.

Floods disrupted food supplies

The study identified major flooding events in 2020/2021 and 2023. Participants reported that floods destroyed crops and damaged transport infrastructure, reducing food production and limiting access to markets. The disruptions also constrained household purchasing power.

In 2023, 66.3% of households reported poor food quality, and 70.3% experienced some level of food insecurity. Households responded in several ways, including preserving food, rationing meals and relying on social networks.

Why food access suffered

The findings show that flooding affected several parts of household food security at once: the amount of food produced, access to markets, food quality and the ability to pay for food. The study points to a need for targeted adaptation and resilience-building measures in communities exposed to floods.

Evidence and limits

The study used a cross-sectional mixed-methods design in Hamakuya Village. It combined questionnaires from 407 households with four focus groups involving 28 participants and six in-depth interviews, alongside rainfall and flood records from 2020–2023. The findings draw partly on participants’ reports and describe one rural community, so they do not by themselves show how widely the results apply elsewhere. The study design also provides a snapshot rather than tracking households over time.

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