SA food security at risk
JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s (SA) food security is at risk due to climate shocks that are significantly disrupting the production of grains and oilseeds, the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) warned this past Friday in their Market Intelligence Report for February this year.
Last month, local agricultural service Grain SA said the recent weather conditions that prevailed in the winter grain regions and current conditions in the summer grain regions had a significant economic impact on grain producers.
It said the winter grain production season faced several challenges with excessive rain in certain areas resulting in losses in yields and placing financial pressure on producers in the affected areas.
In NAMC’s grains and oilseeds section, NAMC’s Thulani Ningi, Naledi Radebe and Thabile Nkunjana say those regions that have historically produced relatively little in the way of grains and oilseeds need to be given a serious second look.
Absence
For producers of grains and oilseeds, the absence of essential infrastructure in provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape were a significant obstacle.
In Anchor’s Coffee Table Economics note released earlier this month, Casey Sprake, an investment analyst for Fixed Income at Anchor Capital, said the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy shows that roughly one-third of SA’s farming income depended directly on irrigation, which naturally required power.
But deteriorating roads, collapsing water infrastructure, poor performance at SA’s key trading ports, and rising crime formed additional barriers to the agriculture sector functioning effectively and efficiently, Sprake said.
NAMC said seasons of high or low commodity prices meant almost nothing to these farmers because, for example, they must sell their maize during unfavourable price points, which results in little to no profit. “Following this, some farmers lose interest in growing grains, which has consequences for the industry’s growth and raises the issue of food security in the country during periods of drought like the current one,” they said.