MALAIKA MAHLATSI: SA's food insecurity crisis will persist in an untransformed and unequal economy

On the 10th of October 2024, the Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development launched the National Food and Nutrition Security Survey (NFNSS).

The survey was conducted by the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) in all nine provinces of South Africa, with ten reports produced – one for each province and one national report.

The primary aim of the survey was to generate baseline data that the government will utilise to provide targeted support interventions to households.

Food and nutrition surveys have historically been done at household level. For my Masters in Public Affairs (Food Security Studies) dissertation titled The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on urban food security in South Africa: A case study of the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality Central Food Bank, the analysis was at a household level.

This unit of analysis has its limitations, as it does not provide a baseline for intervention at a municipal level. The significant value of the NFNSS, which analyses the period 2021-2023, is that the focus is at district and municipal level.

In terms of the data collection for the NFNSS, HSRC fieldworkers visited nearly 35,000 South African households in all nine provinces. They conducted interviews in local languages using questionnaires to ask people about the types and amounts of food they consumed, and to gather household information on issues such as education, employment, and the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on their ability to access food.

In some households, children were measured and weighed to assess their health and growth. To measure the different dimensions of food and nutrition security, the researchers used key internationally accepted food security indicators: the Household Food Insecurity Access Score (HFIAS), Household Hunger Score (HHS), Food Consumption Score (FCS), and Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS).

The HFIAS measures the degree of food access challenges that a household experiences; the HHS measures people’s experiences or perceptions of hunger; the FCS is a composite score based on households' dietary diversity, food consumption frequency, and relative nutritional value of different food groups; and the HDDS indicator provides a glimpse of a household's ability to access food as well as its socio-economic status based on the previous 24 hours. These indicators are used by the United Nations, the World Bank and other agencies working in food and nutrition security.

At the launch, Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen raised concerns about some of the findings of the NFNSS.

The HFIAS revealed that 63.5% of households in South Africa have significant challenges with food access. This means nearly two-thirds of households in our country are food insecure.
In addition to this, the country is also faced with increasing levels of wasting and stunting in children, particularly in the Western Cape and Northern Cape provinces.

Stunting is defined as impaired growth and development manifested by low height-for-age while wasting is defined as low weight-for-height. Stunting and wasting are both manifestations of undernutrition, and according to Steenhuisen, stunting is on the increase.

Another concerning finding from the survey is the persistently high levels of obesity in South Africa, with KwaZulu-Natal seeing an increase in childhood obesity.

While obesity is not often associated with food insecurity, it is, in fact, a form of malnutrition. Malnutrition is caused by eating a diet in which nutrients are not enough or too much such that it causes health problems. In developing countries, overnutrition in the form of obesity is a major malnutrition-related problem, due largely to the consumption of adulterated foods that are cheaper to access.

Such foods lack in nutritional value while containing high levels of trans fat, sugars, and salt.

In his speech, Steenhuisen stated that his department is working on interventions to mitigate food security. These include support for increased food production, increasing agricultural investments through public-private-partnerships (PPPs), supporting subsistence producers through the Presidential Employment Stimulus, crafting the new National Food and Nutrition Security Plan 2024-2029 and implementing the Blended Finance Scheme, as well as the Agriculture and Agro-Processing Master Plan.

While all these are significant interventions, the reality is that South Africa already has numerous programmes and policies aimed at dealing with food and nutrition security.

The National Development Plan (NDP) also has goals for dealing with food insecurity and ending malnutrition. The latter is also one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which have a 2030 deadline. Given that food insecurity and malnutrition are rising in our country, it is not probable that we will meet the deadline, which is in less than six years.

The fact of the matter is that food and nutrition insecurity in South Africa have their basis in our unequal past (and present) and inequitable economic structure.

It is not an accident of history that the NFNSS has determined that the most food-insecure districts in South Africa are in geographic areas that are predominantly Black. The patterns of food insecurity in the country can be mapped alongside historically disadvantaged regions that were on the receiving end of apartheid’s policy of separate development.

Furthermore, households are unable to afford food due to poverty and unemployment, both of which are manifestations of the persistent economic inequalities confronting the country.

Financial interventions such as social grants may alleviate food insecurity to some degree, but when you consider that the amount given for child support grants is below the food poverty line, it is easy to understand why these kinds of interventions by the government, while helpful, are inadequate for resolving food insecurity.

For as long as we live in a country where the economy continues to be in the hands of a few, and where (racialised) capitalism remains the mode of production, we will not deal with food insecurity and related challenges.

Additionally, for as long as global trade policy continues to be defined by the Global North wielding greater power that enables the dumping of adulterated foods in developing countries that have weak economies, health systems and infrastructure, South Africa’s food insecurity crisis will persist.

Therefore, to deal with food insecurity, we must begin at the source – an untransformed, unequal, and racialised economy.