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20 May 2008

Programme director
Executive Mayor of Capricorn District Municipality
MEC for Agriculture Mme Dikeledi Magadzi
MEC for Health and Social Development Mr Seaparo Sekoati
Heads of Departments
Representatives of non-governmental organisation (NGOs)
Our health and social development workers
Agricultural practitioners
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen

During the Executive Council meeting of 30th April 2008, a decision was taken that the provincial government needs to organise a food security summit to deliberate the enhancement of food security as well as the factors that can mitigate the effects of skyrocketing food and commodity prices. In the main, this summit was convened after realising that poor households have become extremely vulnerable as they have to spend a very high share of their income on food.

It is not only the poor who feel the pinch but also average families who have to make difficult trade-offs between the cost of food, fuel, school fees and other commodities. Bread and maize meal, which are primarily used by poor households as their main food source has become disproportionately more expensive than other basic products. The poorest households already spend more than 50% of their income on food. For them, rising food prices are relatively more severe as they have to spend a much bigger share of their income on food.

The situation has become even worse for children who suffer from malnutrition and those living with HIV and AIDS. It has reached near calamity stage if we consider that the majority of citizens in the country rely on purchased food for survival which makes all of us vulnerable to food inflation. Poor families especially, are not able to afford such basic foodstuffs as maize meal, samp, cake flour, cooking oil, sugar, rice, tea, coffee, baked beans, milk and vegetables.

Even though government is already giving out many of these food parcels to the poor, the challenge is how do we make this even more sustainable in the face of food shortages, without creating a dependency syndrome? One of the main objectives of this summit is to harness and consolidate all measures by government and the non-governmental sector to address the impending food shortage challenge.

This is why we have been joined by key stakeholders in this fight such as social workers, Community Development Workers (CDWs), ward councillors, antipoverty NGOs and community-based organisations (CBOs), HIV and AIDS interested groups etc. We hope that we will succeed in devising the best mechanisms out of this summit to ensure that the poorest families are able to have food on the table.

Our first target should obviously be the most vulnerable in our society who include families with little or no income at all, such as, child-headed homes, families with orphans and many children including people living with HIV and AIDS. Part of the reason why we are bound to act in this way as government, is because of the Bill of Rights in the Constitution which acknowledges the rights of everyone to have access to sufficient food and water.

Section 27 of the Republic of South Africa's Constitution particularly requires the state to progressively realise the right to sufficient food within its available means. We know that this crisis has been blamed amongst others, on the global rise in crude oil prices and the fixing of prices by certain food producers. We also know that the concentration of ownership in the hands of few companies in agricultural production has also been blamed as one of the reasons for the increase in food prices.

Programme directors
This is a global challenge inasmuch as it is a local one. While we accept that the slow redistribution of land partly accounts to this challenge, we must also say something about the thousands of hectares of arable land which lie idle due to poor interest in agriculture.

Agriculture is one of the industries with a potential to create food and more jobs in the province. However, in recent years we have seen a decline in the overall contribution of agriculture to the economy relative to other sectors. Although, the labour absorption capacity of agriculture is potentially high, the number of permanent workforce in the farms has been declining. In 2002, employment in the farms was 986 842, whilst in 2005 it was 742 896. Farming units in 2002 were 45 818 and in 2005 were 43 111.

Part of the reason why many of our people are not involved in agriculture and in the production of their own food is because of the availability and access to land, water, seeds, and agricultural instruments. In our view, this challenge of food security requires a multisectoral approach in order to be effectively addressed. It is a challenge of economics of scale inasmuch as it is a challenge of health and agriculture.

We hope that, the summit will comprehensively cover all the areas which have a bearing in food production and food security. We need to develop appropriate and practical solutions for the household, for the community and for the entire province. At the end of the day we must ensure that there is enough food for all, today and in the future.

We declare this summit open!

I thank you.

Issued by: Limpopo Provincial Government
20 May 2008
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government (http://www.limpopo.gov.za/)