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OPINION | 20m South Africans to starve if paradox of our food systems is not addressed

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Food insecurity and hunger will affect 20 million South Africans if we do not address how we grow and distribute food.
Food insecurity and hunger will affect 20 million South Africans if we do not address how we grow and distribute food.
Photo: iStock

BUSINESS


South Africa’s food system is characterised by a paradox. The country is in the upper-middle-income group, has the second-largest GDP value, and is the most industrialised in Africa. Home to 60 million people (the fifth most populous country on the continent), the country has a positive food balance, supported by sophisticated food, nutrition and agricultural policies and many programmes.

However, food system outcomes are sobering. They include a significant triple burden of malnutrition, namely undernutrition, micro-nutrient deficiencies and obesity, unsustainable agricultural production systems, extreme territorial imbalances and a slow transformation towards inclusiveness.

WATCH: Watch | Kgalema Motlanthe Foundation launches food security programme

According to Stats SA, 2021 saw 3.1 million (17,3%) households involved in agricultural activities. This number is low as agricultural food production is mainly located in non-metro and rural areas due to the land being more available to farm in these areas compared to the metropolitan lifestyle that comes with living in the city.

With only 12% of households that reported being involved in agricultural activities being able to use that food as a main source of food for the household and 74.5% having the food produced as an extra source of food for the household, the question becomes why more is not being done to invest in the earth and immediately ensure more South Africa’s have nutritionally secure futures.

The direct relationship between food production, weather conditions, yield per hectare, and climate change is clear.

In sub-Saharan Africa alone, the reduced yields of maize and wheat have negatively affected its food security status. According to the 2022 Global Report on Food Crises Mid-Year Update, at least one in five Africans goes to bed hungry, and about 140 million people in Africa face acute food insecurity.

This is more frightening in South Africa as the 2022 Climate Transparency Report: Comparing G20 Climate Action report shows that climate change poses a severe threat to water quality and availability in South Africa.

READ: Farmers: No power, no food

This threat to our food security and nutrition has continued to directly affect access to food, food availability, food utilisation and stability. The resulting triple burden of malnutrition that is affecting no less than 20 million South Africans is a direct consequence of the instability of our current food systems.

Provincially, this is seen in spite of our developed agricultural food and nutrition security policies. Seven million South Africans experience chronic hunger, while 21 million people are overweight or obese. With about 15% (2.6 million) and 6% (1.1 million) stating that they have inadequate and severely inadequate access to food respectively, the risks of malnutrition are higher. We have more than half a million (683 221) households with children aged five years or younger having reported experiencing hunger in 2021.

These children who do not have adequate nutritious food cannot develop as they should and are at a high risk of acute malnutrition. This can lead to stunting, which affects both physical and cognitive development in malnourished children.

Operation Hunger is not naïve in its review of our food systems and what true investment in the earth means against the current socio-political climate.

After all, our food system remains shaped by inequities rooted in colonialism and exacerbated by apartheid policies and the concurrent isolation of the country. This history, together with reintegration into the global food economy and the adoption of liberalisation policies, the neo-liberal paradigm promoted by international donors, have contributed to the persistence of food and nutrition insecurity despite the availability of sufficient food and public health interventions.

READ: Families at risk of hunger as food prices continue to surge

The degradation of an already vulnerable natural environment aggravated by the early adoption of conventional agriculture techniques and, more recently, by climate change; the continuation of extreme wealth and income inequality arising from multidimensional poverty and unemployment shaped by former racial policies; and the growing asymmetries in power, efficiencies, and information across food value chains and spheres of governance. We know that addressing these challenges will take some time.

This is why Operation Hunger is looking forward to a time when these challenges will be addressed. In the area of food insecurity and nutrition, a reduction in the cost of nutrition-dense food and an increase in the range, scale, and coverage of child-centred food system interventions in the built environment will go a long way towards improving access to nutritionally dense food for vulnerable members of the community.

In the area of food production, immediate support for the transition towards agro-ecological food systems, and linking land reform with place-based farmer support is necessary to positively change the household food index with at least twice as much available for contribution to the GDP.

In the area of market functioning the influence of food system regulatory policies is key for the adoption of an integrated approach to building an inclusive food system.

In the area of food system governance, improving inclusive stakeholder participation and enhancing engagement, while adopting a two-pronged place-and issue-based approach to food system governance will see an immediate impact on the efforts in place to change the nutritional status of all South Africans.

The opportunity remains to exact lasting change across all social structures through the creation of sustainable community operatives that have clear structures, rights/land ownership, resource management  and an integrated implementation plan. Through the Operation Hunger Nutritional Program ™, the journey towards sustainable nutritional security for the most vulnerable in our society is being realised.

We have been able to encourage the production of nutritionally rich food in about 500 communities across the country over the past 40 years. During this time, we are finding that communities in urban Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape have children at high risk for malnutrition. The depths of the poverty we have witnessed in these  communities are aggravated by their socio-economic challenges impacting the availability of food.

READ: Mathatha Tsedu | Farming in the age of load shedding

Through the introduction of bio-diverse sustainable gardens, plant-based nutrition has changed how the community views agriculture.

With the goal being to create self-sustaining community gardens, 100% of all community gardens that are developed through Operation Hunger can positively address the paradox of South Africa’s food system, within the community/local context,  to address the resulting triple burden of hunger and malnutrition. Many communities come together to develop bigger projects that supply local retailers or supermarkets due to the positive impact of what is being produced on the local food system.

Addressing the triple burden of malnutrition in its varying forms per community, in line with the agricultural production systems, is a reality. By working together to develop a nutritionally secure population and improve food access/equity, the current nutritional crisis can be done away with within just 5 – 10 years. This investment creates a green economy that is the best path to a healthy, prosperous, and equitable future.

Bukula is the interim CEO at Operation Hunger


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