Food security a major challenge for SA

MILLIONS of people across our beloved Rainbow Nation – hundreds of them from the Eastern Cape – do not have enough to eat.

“Approximately 13.3% [2.2 million] of households in South Africa indicated that they had skipped a meal during the past 12 months,” the latest figures from Statistics South Africa [Stats SA] show.

“The province with the largest proportion of households that skipped a meal was Eastern Cape at 17.6%, followed by Northern Cape [17.5%], North West [17.4%], Free State [15.7%], KwaZulu-Natal [14.8%], Mpumalanga [14.8%], Limpopo [12.9%], Gauteng [10.8%] and 8.4% in the Western Cape.

“Nationally, nearly one-fifth of households reported to have run out of money to buy food,” said Stats SA. There are many reasons why people skip a meal. Among these is unemployment.

However, one of our biggest challenges is food security.

What is food security? Based on the 20-year-old definition of the World Food Summit, food security is achieved when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food, to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. There is ample evidence that household food insecurity is a significant problem in our province. Food security is seen as a constitutional right in South Africa and guarantees its citizens the right to have access to sufficient food and water.

Despite national food security, many South African households experience continued food insecurity, malnutrition and unemployment as articulated by Stats SA.

That is why in response, the national government has been implementing the Integrated Food Security Strategy (IFSS).

For us, agriculture can offer pathways out of poverty, if efforts are made to increase productivity in the staple foods sector; connect smallholder farmers to rapidly expanding high-value horticulture, poultry, aquaculture, as well as dairy markets; and generate jobs in the rural non-farm economy.

For us in the Eastern Cape, developing inland fishing is key to food security and marine conservation. Alongside traditional agriculture, inland fishing holds the key to job creation. Also, we view aquaculture as key to providing skills to youth, and will also assist government to conserve our remaining stocks.

For example, Wild Coast Abalone is currently the only abalone farm in the Eastern Cape and the third largest in South Africa. The fisheries sector, including aquaculture, has a critical role to play in meeting one of the greatest challenges confronting the world: food security.

Fishing provides vital sources of livelihoods, nutritious food and economic opportunities. Fish continues to be one of the most traded food commodities worldwide.

According to a recent United Nations report in about 200 countries, the fishery trade is especially important for developing nations, in some cases accounting for more than half of the total value of traded commodities.

The Eastern Cape has placed the fisheries sector at the core of development, through the Ocean Economy Strategy, also known as Operation Phakisa. Operation Phakisa will place marine resources central in the economy.

Aquaculture development would ensure we close the fish protein gap that may be created by declining marine capture fish resources. Under Operation Phakisa we plan to grow the aquaculture sector value from R2-billion to up to R6-billion, with potential job creation of up to 200 010 by 2030.

There is no doubt that the rural population, directly or indirectly, is linked to agriculture for its livelihood. And agricultural development is linked to rural development, water resources, industries, poverty alleviation and environment.

Improved farm output also helps in diversification of rural development toward agro-based economies and non-farm activities such as livestock, fisheries and poultry. Thus, agricultural development is critically important for poverty alleviation.

Giving agriculture a serious look, also means going back to our roots and our most bountiful resource: agricultural land.

Indeed, our natural endowment makes us an agricultural and food basket province. Well-managed, sustainable agriculture cannot only overcome hunger and poverty but also usher in food security.

Phumulo Masualle is premier of the Eastern Cape.