Thesis (MPhil)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / Africa is the continent where home sapiens was born and with its worn
out soils, fitful rain and rising population could very well provide a
glimpse of our species’ future. The trends that are behind the current
deterioration in food security go far beyond agriculture itself.
South Africa is food secure at a national level and has been meeting its
food needs from domestic sources in the past twenty years. However,
in spite of its food secure status, 35% or 14.3 million South Africans are
vulnerable to food insecurity.
Food security challenges appear to be considerable against a
backdrop of a South Africa being a net importer of wheat together
with local cereal production that can fluctuate by up to 36% between
years. It is unknown to what extend the true impact of climate change
might affect this and other agricultural activity; a declining indigenous
population as the HIV/AIDS pandemic takes effect; a population poorly
endowed with an entitlement to gain access to sufficient food and
nutrition; a dependency on oil for energy resulting in an outflow of
foreign exchange, expensive agriculture and agricultural crops
changed into fuel crops and markets that allocates the limited
resources, but not feeding the needy poor. Considering the above, the
determinants of food security for South Africa were grouped under the
following headings:
- Entitlement
- Demography
- Agriculture
- Energy
- Climate change
- Markets.
Nobody who has money to pay for food is starving therefore, given the
pervasiveness of malnutrition, the money made by merchants in the
food trade does seem an affront to common notions of economic
justice. The economic and political point is missed when merchants are
blamed for conditions that promoted huge food imports and
malnutrition. Merchants are not interested in famine but in commercial
markets. These merchants thrive upon a system that excludes the
hungry.
Recent protectionist behaviour by food export countries and the
structural shift in the demand of food require South Africa to evaluate
its food security determinants. South Africa requires accurate policies to
guide its food security efforts towards 2030.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:sun/oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/17472 |
| Date | 03 1900 |
| Creators | Vermeulen, Cornel |
| Contributors | Roux, A., Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences. Graduate School of Business. |
| Publisher | Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | en_ZA |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Stellenbosch University |
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