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On South Africa’s household food insecurity challenges
On May 4, I had a conversation on SA fm Radio about food security in South Africa, an important topic.
South Africa has an excellent agricultural sector and produces more than we need; in fact, about half of what we produce is exported.
The fact that we export half of what we produce does not imply that we do not keep food for the domestic market.
We have enough supplies for the domestic market and export the surplus. The South African food insecurity challenges are mainly at the household level.
At a national level, we are food secure as a country, the most food secure country in the sub-Saharan Africa region.
The challenge of household food insecurity is not that food is more expensive in South Africa than in other parts of the world; rather, many households lack income.
We have an income poverty problem in South Africa. So indeed, agriculture can play a role in resolving our food insecurity problem at the household level through job creation, and we must also continue to support smallholder farming, which supplements household food needs, and gardening.
Still, the broad challenge that we all face is about how to grow the economy and create jobs.
The agricultural sector holds the potential to create jobs. We are a country with 2.5 million hectares of land that can be fully utilised for agriculture, and we need to ensure we take advantage of this opportunity. Other jobs can also be created within the agricultural value chain.
But most importantly, their solution to our food insecurity problem requires a more comprehensive socioeconomic approach than just agriculture; we have an income-poverty problem.
-Wandile Sihlobo, wandile@agbiz.co.za
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