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Chapter 3 Research Methodology
Introduction
This chapter includes a brief description of the research study area and the sample population in Gabane village, Botswana. The research designs, as well as data collection techniques are presented. Ethical considerations are discussed and finally, constraints affecting the research.
Research study area
Gabane is a village situated in the peri-urban areas of Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana. The village is surrounded by other small villages that make up the Kweneng district. Gabane village is under the leadership of chief Sello Pule.
The people residing in Gabane village belong to the Balete tribe, which moved from South Africa during the Bantu wars. Due to the accessibility and proximity of Gabane village to Gaborone, the village accommodates many people from other tribes and nationalities who find it convenient to reside in Gabane than in Gaborone.
Gabane residents find the village to be convenient to reside at while working Gaborone. Utilities such as electricity, water and housing are more affordable in Gabane village than in Gaborone city where costs of living are high. Plate 3.2 below partially indicates the map of Botswana with Gabane village within the South Eastern Region.
Profile of Botswana
Botswana is a landlocked country that borders on South Africa, Namibia and Zimbabwe. The country size of Botswana is 582,000 square kilometres. The economy of the country is based mainly on mineral resources, such as diamonds. Agriculture contributes $11.9 billion or 1.7% to the GDP (Republic of Botswana, 2008). The capital city of Botswana is Gaborone with a population of 1, 76 million, with 79% being Batswana and the rest minority groups, including people from foreign countries.
Profile of peri-urban Gabane village
The study was conducted in the peri-urban Gabane village within the South Eastern region of Botswana. Gabane is classified according to the National Settlement Policy (1998) as a secondary centre, and is administered by the Kweneng District Council (Report of Survey, 2003). Gabane is a peri-urban area, 15km southwest of the capital city Gaborone. The village of Gabane covers an area size of 202, 8 square meters (Report of Survey, 2003). In 2001, Gabane had a total of 10399 residents (4707 men and 5695 women) (Central Statistics Office, 2002). The majority of Batswana residing in Gabane village belong to the Balete tribe. A small proportion of the population belong to different tribes in Botswana such as Bangwato, Bakgatla, Bakalaka, Bakena, and others including foreigners mainly from Zimbabwe.
The village is headed by a Chief who is assisted by village elders. The Chief reports to the House of Chiefs, which is a legislative branch forming part of the Government in Botswana (Republic of Botswana, 2008). The map below as plate 3.1 indicates Botswana and its neighbouring countries such as South Africa, Namibia, Angola Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Agriculture and climate in Gabane
Gabane is classified as a dry subtropical semi-arid area and is designated as a desert subtype 5d. This climatic condition is characterised by seasonal and highly erratic, unreliable rainfall (Report of Survey, 2003). Ninety percent of the rainfall occurs during the summer months from October to April but the annual distribution varies in terms of occurrence and intensity. Gabane’s highest temperatures occur during summer months (November, February and March), with mean temperatures being from 20-30 degrees Celsius (Report of Survey, 2003).
With Botswana being situated in the Kalahari Desert, drought often affect the agricultural activities in Gabane.
The unreliable rainfall affects the rate at which the community can cultivate and harvest its produce. Slower growth and harvesting occur during dry season. Sometimes heavy rains can speed disaster when plants have germinated and plant growth is disturbed by water-logged soil.
Education facilities in Gabane
One of Botswana’s long term goals (vision 2016) is education. There are four education policy objectives namely pre-primary and primary school education, secondary school education, vocational training and special education for the disabled. There are five pre-schools in Gabane which are expensive and privately owned, one privately owned senior school and four government primary schools, two government secondary schools and one Brigade/vocational training school owned by the government (Report of Survey, 2003).
Health facilities in Gabane
The principal goal of the Botswana National Health Policy is to provide adequate health care for all Batswana (Report of Survey, 2003). Gabane village has only one clinic and one health post located in the south western part of the village. Given the limited health services, some of the villagers visit clinics in Gaborone (which is 15km away) to access specific services.
Water availability in Gabane
Water for the Gabane settlement is supplied by the Water Utilities Corporation that is considered to be a very reliable source. The Kweneng District Council manages the distribution and maintains the water reticulation network as well as purchase of large volumes of water from the Department of Water Affairs via a booster station positioned in Mogoditshane (Report of Survey, 2003).
In Gabane in 2002, there was an increase in private indoor household water connections and household access to piped water outdoors. Dependence on communal stand pipes decreased as the village developed. A steady supply of water improved household living conditions because some households could build water system toilets to ensure proper sanitation.
Electricity supply in Gabane
Electricity is available from government in Gabane at a reasonable cost. Provision of electricity in Gabane is by a card system which is different from the one-meter system in Gaborone. It has been noted that the energy preference is electricity and candles, while the use of paraffin and wood fuel has decreased substantially (Report of Survey, 2003).
Roads and transportation in Gabane
With Gabane being a peri-urban area, the primary national road network links up with all routes leading to Namibia and South Africa (Report of Survey, 2003). The community is dependent on public transport or minibuses and the cost of a trip to Gaborone is reasonable at P3.00 or R 3.75 (Republic of Botswana, 2008).
Economic opportunities in Gabane
Those who are in full time employment and part-time employment in Gabane are mainly government employees such as teachers, police officers, nurses and other professions. Employment opportunities are very limited in Gabane. Part-time employment can be both professional and non-professional which include housekeeping, child care or baby-sitting and gardening.
In Gabane village, food can be purchased from supermarkets, shops, tuck shops, street vendors and other small businesses initiated by the community to earn a livelihood. The availability of these income generating-activities enables households to purchase nutritious foods to improve household food security and thus adequate nutritional intake.
Plate 3.4 below shows a street vendor stall with fruits, vegetables and candies sold for income to support household living.
Research design
Focus group discussions took place at the Gabane brigade/vocational training school of the government of Botswana (Report of Survey, 2003). A total of 18 women divided in three groups according to their ages participated in the discussion. The researcher could assemble only this number of women, because during the day women were at work and even after working hours women were not prepared to participate since they were tired and their families needed them. Few of the women who were available were older women who were sick and could not participate. All protocol and ethical procedures were followed and maintained by the researcher to establish a good rapport which ensured appropriate responses.
Permission from the Ministry of Local Government and the Village Chief
The researcher applied for a research permit from the Ministry of Local Government in Gaborone. The necessary documents such as certified copies of the national identity card of the researcher, UNISA student card and the research proposal were attached to the application forms sent to the Ministry of Local Government.
After the research permit letter (Appendix 6) was obtained from the Ministry of Local Government the researcher visited Gabane village. A copy of the research permit letter was submitted to the village chief. The chief’s permission was granted orally and no permit letter was offered from the chief’s office. There was no presentation conducted for the Ministry of Local Government before the research permit letter could be offered. The purpose of the study was presented to the chief, community leaders and other villagers who had come for the traditional court (kgotla) meeting. The chief agreed to the study to be conducted in the village and assigned one of the community leaders to accompany the researcher during a walk through the village, to familiarise the researcher with the village and to identify the village wards and population sample.
The study was both qualitative and quantitative. Questionnaires were used and some tables provided facts and figures with figures given.
The objectives of the study were:
1.to document the access to food in these households, which contribute to dietary diversity and diet quality.
2.to determine the socio- economic characteristics of the community which contribute to food access and dietary diversity
3.to determine the diversity of the diet through foods consumed from different food groups, including the consumption and utilization of cowpeas in households (Lost Crops of Africa, 2006).
Development of the measuring instruments
Questionnaires
Two questionnaires were developed for data collection, namely the Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) questionnaire and a cowpea consumption survey (CCS) questionnaire. The socio-demographic questionnaire was developed as section one of the cowpea consumption survey. All questionnaires were piloted to test for validity and reliability. All the individual interviews were conducted by the researcher.
•Socio-demographic questionnaire
The socio-demographic questionnaire was developed to indicate the social status of all participants, household size, age, education level and marital status (Appendix 2).
•The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) questionnaire
The Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS) questionnaire is a standardised, international measuring instrument used for determining dietary diversity and diet quality, and by proxy, household food access. The HDDS questionnaire was contextualised to incorporate local foods consumed in the research community (Appendix 5).
•Cowpeas consumption survey questionnaire
The Cowpeas consumption survey questionnaire was developed by the researcher to collect data on aspects such as the cultivation, utilization, accessibility, preparation and consumption of cowpeas (Appendix 2).
•Focus group guideline
A focus group guideline for in-depth group discussions was developed to guide the researcher. Six women participated in each of the focus group discussions.
The eighteen women who participated in the focus group discussion were randomly selected from different wards in Gabane area. Random sampling was effective because women were able to provide information on how they perceived certain things in their wards. Women from each ward were given an opportunity to present their ideas.
The focus group discussions also had women from three different age groups in the category of 17-57 years of age who had not been part of the study before. The first group comprised young people (17-35 years), followed by the middle age of people (36-45 years) and the elderly people of (46 and 56+ years). The purpose of using three age groups was to triangulate data and gather more data on cowpeas. The discussions were conducted after the individual interviews had been conducted to provide additional information.
Sampling Procedures
Forty households from five wards in the village were identified using the snowball sampling method. The snowball sampling method was used for the study because women in the community were able to identify households with home gardens and small fields. The selected households had to be actively involved in the cultivation of various foods including cowpeas. The sampling age of 17-56 years was due to the fact that women are primarily engaged with the cultivation of food in the fields or gardens and they are responsible for household meal preparations (Ruel, 2006).
Data Collection procedures
The individual interviews were structured interviews. All the questionnaires were administered within the homes of the respondents. Data collection took place in the months of May and June which are the last months of harvesting cowpeas, although some had finished harvesting in March and April.
Table of contents :
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Purpose of the study
1.2 Research design
1.3 Measuring tools for data collection
1.4 Ethical considerations
1.5 Summary of results
1.6 Organisation of the dissertation
Chapter 2: Literature review
2.1 Introduction
2.2 Food access and household food security
2.3 Indigenous and wild food access
2.4 Household dietary diversity
2.5 Dietary diversity and food access
2.6 Dietary diversity and income
2.7 Indigenous foods and nutritional contribution to dietary diversity
2.8 Factors that influence Food Choices
2.9 Cowpeas and its contribution to diet diversity and food access
2.10 Summary of literature
Chapter 3: Methods and materials
3.1 Introduction
3.2 Research design
3.3 Development of measuring instruments
3.4 Sampling procedures
3.5 Data collection procedures
3.6 Ethical considerations
3.7 Data analysis
3.8 Constraints
3.9 Summary
Chapter 4: Results and Discussion
4. Introduction
4.1 Socio-demographic data
4.2 Diet Diversity and Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS)
4.3 Vitamin A-rich foods
4.4 Dietary diversity score
4.5 Diet diversity and diet quality
4.6 Dietary diversity, food access and the contribution of cowpeas
4.7 Wild foods
4.8 Cowpeas as an accessible and nutritious legume
Chapter 5: Summary and Recommendations
5.1 Introduction
5.2 Summary of study results
5.3 Recommendations
5.4 Governmental Ministries
5.5. Further research on diet diversity, diet quality, food access and consumption of cowpeas
