National African Farmers Union of South Africa

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National African Farmers Union of South Africa
Food Security in South Africa
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Presentation Agenda
Introduction Food Security and South African
Agriculture The Integrated Food Security
Strategy (IFSS) Enabling Emerging Black Farmers
Conclusion
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Introduction
NAFU believes that it will play a significant
role in the Governments drive to eradicate food
insecurity amongst the poor in South Africa
Although sophisticated interventions at
macro-economic level are undoubtedly critical to
sustainable maintenance of food security in South
Africa NAFU believes that broadening the
availability of food producing skills at the very
lowest levels is the foundational starting point
of the entire process.

Black farmers who have the ability to play in the
basic foodstuff space are finding it increasingly
difficult to gain a foothold in the sector. At
the same time current commercial farmers are
diversifying into non-basic foodstuffs as well as
non-foodstuff agricultural products and
concentrating on exports. This does not make
local food more affordable It has the opposite
effect.
We are convinced of the relevance of the emerging
Black farmer in the issue of achieving food
security in South Africa and we must find ways of
promoting their effective participation
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Food Security and South African Agriculture
NAFU fully supports the stated objectives of the
Strategic Plan for South African Agriculture We
do not believe however that the plan is
comprehensive with regard to promoting food
security at a grassroots level
There is a common misperception that promotion of
commercial agriculture represents achieving food
security it does not. Food security is achieved
when the appropriate portion of effort, land and
other resources is aimed at producing affordable
food for local consumption. The Sector Plan does
not spell out how this balance between high-end
agricultural activity/produce and basic
foodstuffs will be achieved
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The Integrated Food Security Strategy (IFSS)

• IFSS objectives/challenges
• Increased domestic food production through
  support services to farmers
• Facilitation of regional trade in food items
• Improve livelihoods through agriculture based
  income generation
• Improve food safety and nutritional status of
  food-insecure South Africans
• Improve food safety nets and food emergency
  management systems
• Set up a comprehensive system of information
  management in order to improve policy analysis,
  monitoring and evaluation of the IFSS

The above cannot be achieved or maintained while
the majority of the South African farming
community is not enabled to make a valuable
contribution to food production Enabled Black
farmers represent a critical building block in
the foundation of a food secure South Africa. In
essence this means that Black farmers need
facilitated access to Land, Agricultural Skills,
Food Production opportunities and Consumer Markets
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Enabling Emerging Black Farmers I
LRAD, the ultimate implementation of the Communal
Land Bill as well as increased access to
development funding will alleviate the lack of
access to land being experienced by the Black
farming community
Viable and profitable food production was created
by ensuring a very favorable financial
environment for White farmers by the previous
government. Eradicating the backlog hampering
Black farmers from achieving commercial viability
requires preferential financial conditions as
well. Preferential treatment for emerging farmers
must be linked to food production and performance
criteria appropriate to their specific
environment.
NAFU believes that assisted rehabilitation of the
debts of emerging Black farmers should be given
high priority This programme must be
underpinned by a mechanism to ensure sustainable
commercial viability of those affected
There is no strong institutional support for
migrating Black subsistence farmers to
commercialy viability food producers With
appropriate structures NAFU will be able to
deliver this support
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Enabling Emerging Black Farmers II
Appropriate infrastructure will enable the
emerging Black farmers to deliver foodstuffs more
efficiently to consumer areas most affected by
shortages This entails enabling farming
activities closer to the poor communities
Increased access to water for emerging Black
farmers is crucial if viable and sustainable food
production is to be achieved
Black farmers will however be set up to fail if
the transfer of land and access to farming
opportunities is not strongly supported by a
constructive and sustainable transfer of
agricultural production and management skills
The mechanisms that allow farmers access to
markets must be reviewed with the objective of
making it possible for emerging farmers to
compete (or collaborate) with commercial
operations. Incentives aimed at promoting
collaboration between emerging and existing food
producers needs further investigation
NAFU believes that emerging commercial
agricultural development must enjoy increasing
priority in broader development strategies
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Enabling Emerging Black Farmers III
Imposition of unstructured and ill-informed Land
Tax by municipal authorities will make it
impossible for emerging farmers to get started.
Land tax is an input cost that should be deferred
for specified periods as incentives to emerging
Black farmers.
Creation of reliable and affordable
pre-production support and supply chain
mechanisms for Black farmers must be regarded as
high priority enablers
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Conclusion
The drive for export of non basic foodstuff
agricultural goods is good for the South African
economy but impacts negatively on the
availability of food producing capacity in South
Africa
There are a multitude of sincere and well
researched plans that describe WHAT must be done
to achieve food security. None of the plans sets
out in detail HOW this will be achieved. NAFU is
an organisation that represents an ideal platform
for facilitating the delivery of these plans
The process dynamics associated with food
security management must be comprehensively
identified and manifested into a monitoring
mechanism that is proactive in recognising risk
and implementation of mitigating interventions
NAFU is idealy placed as an organisation to
facilitate a sustainable National solution
between Traditional Leadership values and
the demands of competitive modern agricultural
NAFU believes that food security for all South
Africans by 2015 should be the primary target for
the South African agricultural sector. Self
sustainable food security for 50 of currently
food insecure households must be the target for
integrated development initiatives
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Thank You