Parliament heard in the second week of March that 70% of people living in Ceres, one of South Africa’s agricultural powerhouses, experience hunger.
A survey of 540 households in the poor communities of Ceres, an export fruit-growing centre in the Western Cape, showed that hunger increased in winter months when jobs outside the peak seasonal harvest times became scarce.
Only 9% of residents had access to land for food production and less than 1% could graze livestock, according to the research by the Programme for Land and Agrarian Studies (Plaas) at the University of the Western Cape.
At public hearings on food security by Parliament’s agriculture committee this week, Plaas called for urgent measures to ease access to land and water, and for support for household food production.
The study indicated that a focus on creating low-cost jobs and on promoting small black commercial farmers was not adequate. “These are not jobs that anyone can build a sustainable livelihood out of,” said senior researcher Andries du Toit.
He said that in post-war Europe garden allotments in urban areas became vital for food security when it became clear that commercial farms could not produce food in sufficient quantities.
The Department of Agriculture estimates that 12-million South Africans, or 2,2-million households, are vulnerable to hunger and food insecurity. Its statistics show that national food emergency allocations have reached only 244 950 households.
A study by the Human Sciences Research Council, commissioned by the department, shows that the current high food prices have forced households to reduce the number of meals they eat a day, opt for cheaper foodstuffs of poor quality and buy substitutes for meat and eggs, which are no longer affordable.
The South African National NGO Coalition (Sangoco) told MPs that South Africa produced enough food for all its citizens, but that the system had failed because 60% of the population went hungry.
“The market cannot feed people. The state cannot feed people, it’s not its business,” said Sangoco’s Glenn Ashton.
Opportunities for people to feed themselves had to be made available through sustainable agriculture linked to land reform, Sangoco said.