Food Security Policy for South Africa

1. SECRET Food Security Policy for South Africa MAY 2012

2. SECRET Legal Basis Bill of Rights in the Constitution: “Every citizen has the right to access sufficient food and water, and the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources to achieve the realisation of this right” (27, 1(b)) Every child has a right to basic nutrition..” (28, 1(b))

3. SECRET Problem statement 2.8 million households (11.8 million people) are “food insecure”, and 72% of these are in rural areas Food security challenges: • Availability of food • Accessibility of food • Utilisation of food • Stability of food supply

4. SECRET AVAILABILITY OF FOOD Domestic production versus consumption This illustrates the domestic production in relation to the domestic demand. The shortfall of each commodity below the 100 base index is imported. S.A. imported 40% more food recently than it had for the past five years. Wheat demand is expected to grow by more than 50% in 2011 and by almost 90% by 2020 due to food consumption pattern changes and economic growth.

5. SECRET ACCESSIBILITY OF FOOD Spatial inequalities Even though food is largely produced in rural areas, markets are not geared to serving these areas As a result consumers in rural areas had to pay R16.74 more than consumers in urban areas for the same basket of products (October 2010)

6. SECRET STABILITY OF FOOD SUPPLY Climate change and changing land use patterns are affecting the stability and predictability of food supply The liberalisation of food markets has also led to a situation where surpluses and shortages are not managed

7. SECRET DEFINING FOOD SECURITY The Food Security Policy recommends • An individual adult daily energy consumption of 2 650 Kcal (11 095kj) • Individuals consuming less that 1 792 Kcal (7 502 kj) be considered food insecure • A food poverty line of R260 spent on food per capita per month as a proxy indicator of food security. This amount would cover 70% of a basic food basket at current prices.

8. SECRET The Food Security Policy Pillar 1: Economic transformation of the food production and distribution sector • Alignment to NGP and IPAP2 • Government food procurement programme, with prescribed percentage of purchases from local smallholder and emerging sector • Support for sustainable rural, peri-urban and urban agriculture

9. SECRET The Food Security Policy Pillar 2: Improved market participation • Application of the Agri-BEE Charter • Preferential procurement to broaden supply base • Prescribed percentage of processed products from smallholder and emerging farmers

10. SECRET The Food Security Policy Pillar 3: Improved food distribution • Improved safety nets (cash, voucher or food transfers) • Planned spatial development to ensure necessary supplies • Support for local production

11. SECRET The Food Security Policy Pillar 4: Nutrition Education • Appointment of nutritionists in every District to advise on meal planning, nutritional indices and consumer literacy • School and community programmes to improve utilisation and consumption of available food

12. SECRET The Food Security Policy Pillar 5: Risk management • Regional food security • Investment in research and development to buold resilience to climate change • Protecting agricultural land • Reliable food security information systems

13. SECRET Institutional Framework Championed by President and Premiers Ministerial Committee on Food Security as inter-Departmental co-ordinating structure Advisory Committee on Food Security, comprising experts from government and civil society Food Security Co-ordination Units at national, provincial and local levels

14. SECRET Recommendation That Cabinet approves the Food Security Policy for South Africa