Congress Mahlangu
The food shortage and food security crisis in South Africa has received immediate attention following a government initiative to declare October the month of food security.
To complement this, the Department of Agriculture hosted a workshop entitled Regulatory Services: Towards an Effective Agriculture Environment in South Africa in Johannesburg last weekend.
Despite mixed feelings expressed by participants at the workshop, director general of the department Bongiwe Njobe was satisfied with the quality of discussions. She said the purpose of the gathering was to inform the public about the various policies, legislation and norms, and to discuss the proposed food security strategy.
Mandla Motshweni, the village manager of SOS Children Villages in Mamelodi, Pretoria, was cautious in his evaluation of the gathering. “There should be a strong linkage between the rural farming industry and that of the urban sectors. Food gardens have shown a tremendous improvement within the urban areas wherein youth participate, especially in providing health for the HIV-affected groups in our country.
“The welfare department has [a similar programme] of food security and we would want that programme to be linked up with the Department of Agriculture’s to avoid duplication of the projects.”
The South African NGO Coalition was critical of the representivity of the workshop. Steve Mamphekgo pointed out that the workshop was full of white farmers and the black middle class, who have little practical knowledge of food safety and security.
He said although the initiative is good, the workshop was supposed to be driven by the poor people who are directly involved in the farming sector, as opposed to the type of food security that is based on the interests of commercial farmers.
“The government should move away from the top-down approach, where only elitists are regarded as the sole custodian or driving force of any programme and black, poor people are mere observers.”
The South African National Seed Organisation said the workshop succeeded in achieving consensus on the need to coordinate development and implementation of food safety legislation by way of a national food control agency. The development is welcome since South Africa needs a centralised system to replace the currently fragmented, uncoordinated and inadequately enforced system.
However, Dr Wynand van der Walt of the national seed organisation said much of the discussion repeated what had been identified and agreed upon at previous workshops.
“In order to implement policies we need profiles and databases of rural agricultural needs and constraints per province and region,” he said.
“It would be helpful if the organisers can identify the major issues in food security and develop a draft proposal that all stakeholders can endorse.”