Food security threat looms
|Published
File photo: Reuters File photo: Reuters
Durban - Food security was a “difficult and wicked problem” exacerbated by a shrinking agricultural sector and climate change, an economist said in Durban yesterday.
Director of the Centre of Excellence in Food Security at the University of the Western Cape, Professor Julian May, told hundreds of delegates at the SA Association of Food Science and Technology’s (SAAFost) biennial conference that although food security was a constitutional right and that progress had been made in poverty alleviation, the country faced “considerable risk” of food insecurity.
May said data from Statistics South Africa showed 21% of citizens were “food insecure”.
“Food insecurity spreads from absolute hunger – where 12.6% of the population is suffering from absolute hunger – through to other forms of hunger, hidden hunger and over nutrition,” he said.
“In addition to the 11 million people that are hungry, we have about 21 million people who are overweight or obese in South Africa, so we have made progress, but South Africa is at quite considerable risk of food insecurity,” he said.
May said a factor impacting food security included a concentrated agricultural sector, which had shrunk from 60 000 commercial farms in 1996 to 40 000 farms in 2007, with around 500 000 jobs shed.
“Right now just 0.6% of those commercial enterprises, that’s 240 farm units, account for 33% of all farm income in South Africa,” he said.
May said over 60% of the population was urbanised, with just 6% of the population involved in food production.
“There are years when we are food insecure, and there are years when we are forced to import maize,” he said.
In addition, he said farmers faced higher input costs as seed prices had increased by 19%, energy by 14% and farm wages by 51% in 2013.
“Farmers may receive as little as 18% of the sale value of the products that they are selling. The bulk of the money earned in farming does not take place with the farmers or even in South Africa; it is more likely to take place in (UK retailer) Tesco or the supermarkets in Europe,” he said.
However, he said, on a positive note, Statistics SA data showed the country had halved self-reported hunger and poverty had decreased since 2009.
“People are earning more money and are better able to pay for food, but we have some perplexing outcomes,” he said.
He said there had been no reduction in stunting, which is associated with prolonged malnutrition, over the past 20 years, despite investing in child support grants and child health policies.
“One in six children live in poor households, and about a quarter of our children show signs of extreme malnourishment. Children that are stunted are frequently in households where the women are obese,” he said.
“This may be that women are choosing a diet which is unhealthy and provides sufficient calories, but is not nutrient-rich, so they can feed their children,” he said.
“Overweight and obesity is increasingly being recognised as an illness of poverty rather than as a symptom of wealth,” he said.
May said the country faced an epidemic of overweight and obesity among its population.
“We have a dramatic increase in the percentage of all age groups, even children, that can be considered to be overweight or obese.
“About 60% of South African women are overweight and obese, and that is a serious problem for a country contemplating a national health system, because overweight and obesity is associated with a range of non-communicable diseases,” he said.
Among these are diabetes, cardiac diseases and muscular skeletal disorders, he said.
He said globally planners were referring to food security as a “difficult and wicked problem”.
May added that food prices had fluctuated wildly in recent years, partly due to climate change, drought and global markets.
“I don’t think we are talking about this drought enough in South Africa,” he said.
SAAFost president Ryan Ponquett said food scientists needed to get politically involved to inform governments to solve the problem of food insecurity.