Holistic approach to green paper is needed

South Africa, in the words of a statement by the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform, is heading for a “robust debate” on the subject of land reform in the wake of the release of a cabinet green paper last week. A holistic approach that goes beyond a mere redistribution of land is needed if food security, among others, is not to be put in danger by the outcomes.

That much is clear from a study-document released earlier this year by the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries’ (DAFF) economic services directorate under the title Food Security

It is to be hoped that this study-document will be re-visited during the debate and discussions on the Draft Green Paper on Land Reform.

The study document, which reviews literature on food security studies in South Africa and identifies gaps, strongly makes the case that the link between agriculture and food security at household level is not always fully appreciated. It also recommends  research on how the agricultural sector can contribute significantly to food security in the country.

Although some reference has been made in passing in official statements when the green paper was released, it does not feature in the seven key focus areas, which are: a vision for land reform; principles underlying land reform; current challenges and weaknesses; rationale for change; an improved trajectory for land reform (including institutions to support land reform); the strategic thrust for land reform; land reform experiences elsewhere; and challenges and constraints.

Making the case for more studies on the subject, the DAFF-document states that much has been done in South Africa with regard to food (in)security. “However, the majority of studies focus on poverty and food insecurity in general and not much has been done to link the two with agriculture.”

It is said that agriculture plays a vital role in poverty alleviation by reducing prices, creating employment and improving farm income and wages for farm workers, the document states, but these areas also need to be further investigated.

The document further comes to the conclusion that the role of agriculture

in food security has not been fully addressed in the literature and further studies are needed.

“Since the Department of Agriculture has invested heavily in a number of agricultural projects at community and household level, it is of utmost importance to carry out follow-up studies to determine the economic impact from agriculture’s point of view.”

The role of agriculture

About the role of agriculture the report states that “… making agriculture work must be (a) central component of policy approaches to food insecurity reduction and increasing economic growth. Increased investment in agriculture will help redress the current inequalities. Empowering people to grow their own food for subsistence or income generation will provide nourishment and potential income to many people in the country.”

The report highlights, among others, the following points:

• In the absence of appropriate farme- support programmes, smallholder farmers will have little chance of escaping poverty and agriculture’s role of creating livelihood will remain limited;
• The FAO-report revealed that the majority of people living in rural areas had access to land, but lacked the necessary skills and access to resources for sustainable farming.
• Factors such as lack of access to finance, communication infrastructure, education, skills development facilities and agricultural inputs still prevent black South Africans from making substantial progress in farming;
• An estimated four million people in South Africa are engaged in smallholder agriculture mostly because agriculture is seen as the provider of the main source of food, or purely for subsistence. A specific problem though, is that there are no credible long-term national data that establish the contribution of the subsistence/smallholder agricultural sector to food security; and
• Case studies done in 2009 pointed out a decline in agricultural activities in the former homelands, with the common reason being the removal of support that farmers in the former homelands received from their governments.

The study does, however point out that the Strategic Plan for South African Agriculture 2007 revealed that there were approximately 240 000 black farmers in South Africa, providing a livelihood for more than a million family members as well as temporary employment to 500 000 people. It further confirmed that approximately three million small-scale farmers produce food primarily to meet their household needs.

“Land distribution is one of the areas vital to address food insecurity … Addressing the disparity of land distribution is considered a crucial (factor) towards reducing food insecurity in the country. Around 17.1 million hectares is owned by black farmers of which only 2.6 million hectares of that land is suitable for agricultural production,” the study states.

National and household food security not the same

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) in a 2008 report deemed South Africa a largely food secure nation, producing enough staple foods or having the capacity to import food, if needed to meet the basic nutritional requirements of its population.

“Hart et al (2009) supported the argument that South Africa seems to be food secure at national level but the same cannot be said about households and rural areas,” the document states.

A 2009 survey by Statistics South Africa reported that an estimated 20% of South African households have inadequate or severely inadequate food access. According to the FAO report of 2008, a high unemployment rate, inadequate social welfare systems and a high HIV/Aids infection rate have all contributed to household food insecurity in the country.

“Literature by Demetre et al (2004), confirms South Africa’s national food secure status but suggests that more than 14 million people, or about 35% of the population in the country ware estimated to be vulnerable to food security.

“It is also reckoned that as many as 1.5 million, or about one quarter, of children under the age of six … have been stunted by malnutrition. This is supported by Machete et al (2004) in his study which confirms that food insecurity is more persuasive in rural areas. According to the report, the majority of poor people are found in rural areas with roughly 75% of those chronically poor,” the DAFF-report states.

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