This study has assessed household food security (access) and its determinants across selected
rural households from all the five districts in the Limpopo province in South Africa, using a large
cross-sectional household survey. Data were collected by using structured questionnaires. Two
municipalities were randomly selected from each district. A total of 600 households were
involved in the study with 60 households selected from each municipality. Approximately 15%
of the households were categorized as food secure, 6% as mildly food-insecure, 26% as
moderately food-insecure and 53% as severely food-insecure. Majority of the households
purchase their food from the market rather than their own production and in many situations,
market purchases of the major food staples such as mielies constituted more than 90% of the
food consumed by the households. A factor analysis of the household responses to their food
access experiences of the past 30days prior to the study revealed two main factors: (1) mild-tomoderate
food insecurity; and (2) severe food insecurity. The factors, jointly, explained
approximately 82% of the total variance in the responses. The factors were used in further
multiple linear regressions analyses. The findings clearly suggest that education, gender, age of
household head and household size affect both mild-to-moderate food insecurity as well as the
experience of severe household food insecurity in the study area. Additionally, household
production of vegetables, low dependency ratio, steady income source such as those from formal
employment as well as household receipts of social grants and remittances were associated with
lower levels of mild-to-moderate food insecurity.