Food production policies need collective wisdom

Listed as one of the poorest provinces in the country, albeit its natural resource endowment, the Eastern Cape – like other provinces akin to it in terms of socio-economic tapestry – has intricate paradoxes.

Poverty, low economic activity and opportunities are some of the characteristics that feature prominently in the lives of many Eastern Cape communities. But this unfolds alongside infrastructure and socio-economic development responding to the challenges posed by the social ills in our society.

Though the province has thousands of hectares of arable land, development needs to be approached cautiously owing to the degeneration of this land’s quality over time due to overgrazing and other harmful practices.

Due to the legacy of apartheid, inter-generational and structural poverty remains widespread and deep in the province.

Both national and provincial government poverty alleviation programmes succeed due to proper planning and implementation within the budgeting process.

This land needs to be rehabilitated and appropriate farming practices and technology need to be encouraged, especially at the level of homestead, community and small-scale farming.

Poverty, malnutrition, hunger and extreme hunger are some of these challenges that society face.

In a bid to eradicate poverty, food insecurity and extreme hunger in the province, we decided to review our current food production policy as the department and released the draft food production policy for public comments.

The draft policy, available on our website (www.drdar.gov.za), is one of the policies critical in our food security and human development programmes.

For us to alleviate poverty and eradicate extreme hunger and malnutrition, we need a people-based food production policy that gives the people of the province, particularly the poor, control of the means of food production for them to be food secure.

The food production policy review is aimed at addressing current food scarcity and poor nutrition challenges faced by the majority of the provincial populace, 25% of who are food insecure, 17.3% deemed food inadequate while 7.7% are severely food inadequate, as stipulated in the provincial development plan.

Our priority is to eradicate hunger, poverty, malnutrition and extreme hunger in our society through human development programmes like food security, skills development, and training and job creation.

It is critical for us that this food production policy guides how we address nutritional awareness challenges to ensure nutritional sufficiency and balance, which we have identified as a bigger challenge than food security as they also manifest in a number of lifestyle health conditions.

It is of critical importance that the people of the province take time to read the draft food production policy, engage it and submit their ideas to the department. For us to defeat the poverty, hunger and malnutrition challenges mentioned, we need collective wisdom on how best to give the people of the province control of the means of food production for them to be food secure.

We call on the people of the province to use the free time they will have during the summer holidays to discuss this draft food production policy during imbizos in their villages and submit those to our department for consideration.

The time has come for us to stop throwing food parcels at food insecure, poverty- and hunger-stricken individuals and households.

We must use the resources we have as government to empower every hungry and poverty-stricken person to have control of a means of food production.

The process to review this food production policy will help us expand the food for all programmes as part of the national integrated food and nutrition policy the ANC committed to in its elections manifesto.

We call on the people of the Eastern Cape in all the sectors from communities, rural villages, traditional leaders, businesses, civil society, churches, youth formations, political parties, farmers, livestock owners, academic institutions, traditional health practitioners, the Muslim community, African traditional religions, philanthropic organisations, corporations, the Hindu community, other religious formations and labour federations and unions to read the draft policy and submit their inputs to our department for consideration.

Early next year, my office will convene a meeting of all stakeholders to discuss policy proposals so that we have a food production policy informed by the collective wisdom of the people of the province.

I would like to remind South Africans of the challenge Professor Muhammad Yunus threw at us when he delivered the seventh annual Nelson Mandela lecture: “We can overcome poverty, if only we decide that this does not belong to the world that you want to create.”

We propose that policy proposals made by various individuals and organisations are guided by the resource potential of the identified area to determine the type and the magnitude of the enterprises to be established and promoted.

Also of key importance for consideration is reliable food insecurity data.

This is a prerequisite for defining the type of intervention to be designed and introduced in a particular area or community.

Our focus is to ensure that both crop and livestock enterprises are promoted to enhance food security in the province. In this regard, food security interventions must ensure that the targeted communities and individuals gain comprehensive access to production and value adding resources and thus create job opportunities.

The priority of this policy is to make sure food insecure communities are capacitated and empowered so they can autonomously produce adequate, nutritious and safe food.

Comments can be e-mailed to Lindile Majova: Lindile.Majova@drdar.gov.za

Mlibo Qoboshiyane is MEC for Rural Development and Agrarian Reform, an ANC PEC and PWC member and its spokesperson.