Sunday Yiseyon Hosu
University of Fort Hare, South Africa
Title: Agricultural policies and food system transformation: has post-apartheid South Africa done better?
Biography
Biography: Sunday Yiseyon Hosu
Abstract
South Africa is unlikely to catch attention when the nations with food emergency are mentioned due to its well-developed commercial farming. There is no lack of well-intended policies to improve agriculture and food security of its citizens. However, with Human Development index ranking of 118 among 135 countries and Human Poverty of 13.4% and ranking of 85 amidst all policies and strategies of improving the agriculture and food security issues, it defies logic that South Africa has made a lot of motion but not necessarily movement in the right direction. The article from this study is aimed at reviewing the performance of key indicators: per capita land utilization, production and consumption of selected staple foods that cover basic household wellbeing such as maize, dry beans, potato, vegetables, sugar, citrus and apple in the pre and post-apartheid periods of South Africa. We found that there is a declining trend in per capita land cultivation, per capita food production and mixed results of per capita consumption of some major staple foods. The study revealed that population growth in South Africa has not been harnessed and there is possibility of worsening food security in the country. We also found the per capital consumption of maize in South Africa is below 160 kg/person/year recommended by WHO/FAO while per capita consumption of potato and sugar are presently above required kg/person/year. We recommend per capita targeting policy strategies for the improvement of staple food production and dietary balancing to ensure sustainable food security.