South Africa has 20 million people living in food insecurity and wants to encourage every household with land to grow fresh produce
South Africa is hopeful that G20 member states will find ways to confront the global imbalance in access to food by promoting policies and investments that drive inclusive market participation and support poor farmers.
This was among the four priorities of the G20 agriculture working group’s food security task force meeting of world leaders and agricultural experts in Durban on Friday. The other priorities include empowering the youth and women in the agrifood sector; fostering innovation and technology transfer in agriculture and building climate resilience for sustainable agricultural production.
“We are hoping to see development cascade down to our grassroots level, our smallholder and commercial farmers and those involved in cooperatives and family farming,” KwaZulu-Natal MEC for agriculture and rural development Thembeni kaMadlopha-Mthethwa told the gathering.
“G20’s focus on agricultural activities would certainly go a long way in unlocking challenges in the sector. We have long been seeking solutions that would make agriculture efficient, productive and sustainable.”
According to a national food and nutrition security survey conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council between 2021 and 2023, up to 20 million South Africans are severely food insecure, while 63% of households experience food insecurity and 17% face critical undernourishment.
In addition, South Africa is one of 20 countries that account for 65% of all children living in severe child food poverty globally according to a United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) report released in 2024.
“We are aware of the number of people that sometimes go hungry but, with the engagement here, we are coming up with policies that are looking at that directly,” Mthethwa told a media briefing on the sidelines of Friday’s forum.
Her department was working with the national department of agriculture and municipalities to roll out existing programmes and develop new ones to tackle hunger.
“As a team from national, provincial and district level up to the municipality we are going to be identifying the key areas where hunger is a problem and we will start there,” she said.
Mthethwa had earlier told delegates that her department had issued a call to make agriculture “cool” and “fashionable” to get young people involved in farming projects and was focusing on attracting them to study at agricultural schools.
“It’s a call purposefully directed to the youth to rise above and be counted in the agricultural value chain, as we intend not to leave anyone behind, including our most vulnerable groups in our diversified communities,” she said.
“Agriculture is not for the old persons only or those who take it up because they have nothing else to do. Agriculture is a rewarding and fulfilling profession for people of all ages, including older and young people.”
Her department was also encouraging communities and government institutions, such as schools and clinics, to use vacant land to grow crops, adding: “It’s a call that has been warmly welcomed, even by places of worship.”
On the sidelines of the event, the national department of agriculture deputy director general for biosecurity and natural resources Dipepeneneng Serage noted that the Constitution stipulates that everyone in the country has the right to access water and food.
“The question is, is that happening at the moment? It’s not. We are struggling with social grants. Are we ensuring that social grants lead to children having food before they sleep? That’s the policy challenge we are facing,” Serange said.
“We will not go far if we do not understand the demographics — we need to know how many people there are, how many are staying in rural areas, what the income levels are in those families and how many of them have land.
“Most people growing up in villages had land … But over time, commerce got in and made sure that you had to buy food. I grew up having chickens and eggs from chickens, milk and goats but, over time, commerce came and introduced us to instant food. We need to go back and check each ward.”
He said households needed to return to rural practices of farming the land, rather than relying on financial handouts and food parcels which were not real solutions — which had been largely lost during democracy.
However, there was no direct policy that guided villages on how to produce food and the national government was working on policy and laws to guide municipalities and provincial governments “to ensure every household, through what they have learned, must be able to produce some of the food that they consume”.
eThekwini mayor Cyril Xaba said urbanisation was creating a problem for the city, as people were leaving its rural areas, which comprise 60% of the metro, due to a lack of economic opportunities. As a result, the city now has at least 590 informal settlements.
“Immigration into the city is causing serious challenges. We need to grow the economy to create jobs for the people who come into the city,” he said.
“We are starting to experience an increase in demand in certain areas for water, and there is more strain on water and electricity systems, so we need to do something, as a city, in the areas from where people come just to slow down migration into the city centres. We then looked at agriculture as one way to help keep people busy in the rural areas.”
Xaba said the metro had invested in agricultural programmes to assist small, medium and micro enterprises in livestock farming, fish farming and crop production through climate-smart agriculture with a special focus on youth and women enterprises.
“However, for such interventions to succeed, we need the private sector, especially the financial institutions, to play their part because we know that lack of capital remains one of the stumbling blocks for many aspiring farmers. It is our view that food security is key to ensuring stability and economic prosperity,” he added.
eThekwini hoped to learn the best practices of its counterparts across the globe at the G20 meeting and how they tackled problems that perpetuate poverty and inequality, the mayor said.