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SOUTH AFRICA: Food Banks to Curb Hunger

Davison Makanga

CAPE TOWN, Mar 26 2009 (IPS) - In yet another attempt to bolster food security in the country, a charity organisation has opened a food bank in Cape Town which will operate like a huge warehouse from which food is handed out to the poor.

The food banking concept is the latest of a raft of measures taken by both non-governmental organisations and the government to curb poverty, such as the distribution of food parcels, vouchers and social grants.

Patrick Andries, executive director of Food Bank South Africa, says the programme, which is planned to be rolled out countrywide, aims to assist the 20 million poor South Africans who are living under the poverty line of $1 a day.

“The basic concept of food banking is that you have a centralised warehouse facility where you collect food via donor agencies, food manufacturers, farmers, wherever food is available. We bring that food into the warehouse, store and repackage it and get it out to communities in need,” explained Andries.

However, questions remain if initiatives like Food Bank South Africa are only short-term solutions to the long-term problem of food security in one of the continent’s most advanced economies.

Statistics South Africa reported that inflation of food prices reached 16.1 percent year on year in January, shockingly high compared to declining global trends – in the United States, for instance, inflation of food prices was at 2.7 percent year on year and 3.2 percent in the United Kingdom.


“We are [more than] the rest of the world affected by high food prices. This is a major concern for the most vulnerable groups of our society,” said Priscilla Sehoole, agriculture department chief communications officer.

Grain South Africa, an association of farmers specialising in grain products, warns that the country’s rich harvests of the past ten years are set to decline. The association said many farmers are leaving the sector due to lack of profit.

Data from the Department of Agriculture show first indications of this trend. South Africa produced twelve million tonnes of maize IN 2008, three million in excess of local demand. A forecast for this year predicts farmers will produce two million tonnes less. Most importantly, South Africa is an importer of wheat, which has a direct impact on prices of staple foods like bread.

Grain South Africa chairperson Neels Ferreira told IPS that farmers are disgruntled over issues relating to the low profitability but high risk of farming. Farmers need more support and subsidies from government to be able to produce affordable, healthy food, he argued.

“The ability of farmers to produce affordable food at a profit is the only way [South Africans] can be sure of having food to eat at a price they can pay,” Ferreira said.

John Rook, policy coordinator of the Regional Hunger and Vulnerability Programme, argues that a solution could be the diversification of staple food in South Africa. He says farmers should be encouraged to plant and use equally nutritious alternatives to maize, such as sorghum. Rook maintains that the availability of more products will improve food security and prices will subsequently fall.

“As a general principle for Southern Africa as a whole, we need to see food security as a multi-commodity dimension and move away from the idea that if the price of maize is high, then it is a crisis,” suggests Rook.

The government’s agricultural policies have come under fire not only from commercial farmers and agricultural experts but also from land rights activists, such as Andile Mngxitama, who blames the South African government for failing to fulfil its pledge of redistributing 30 percent of land between 1994 and 1999.

Mngxitama says only five percent of land has been given to the previously disadvantaged since South Africa became a democracy. He believes that if the majority of poor South Africans were given adequate fertile land, subsistence farming would increase, thus promoting self-sustainability.

With so many factors affecting food security in South Africa and the continent at large, it becomes apparent that there will not be a quick solution to reducing food insecurity, hunger and poverty.

For Professor Cheryl Hendricks, director of the African Centre for Food Security at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban, solving the food security puzzle transcends commercial farmers concerns. She suggests robust support for the country’s poor through developmental programmes aimed at income generation.

Hendricks believes social grants could be an effective means of poverty reduction if tied with conditions of productivity and skills development. “Programmes, such as food-for-work where services are rendered on public sector investment programmes and food-for-school, where families with school-going children receive food parcels if children attend school, indirectly increase the long-term household labour force potential,” she explained.

“Investments in the informal sector with microfinance programmes, business skills training, market and business incubator programmes also help poor households gain access to additional income,” added Hendricks.

She stresses the fact that all sectors of society needed to play a role in addressing poverty: “The private sector can assist by broadening employment opportunities for the poor, granting opportunities for skills development and incomes. NGOs are very active in various roles from advocacy, feeding schemes and health care. If they and the private sector link up, we could see more people reached.”

 
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