IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/ags/agreko/267534.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Food Security In South Africa

Author

Listed:
  • van Zyl, Johan
  • Kirsten, Johann

Abstract

South Africa's agricultural policy has had food self-sufficiency as a major objective until recently. This is still the case for a number of the homelands. South Africa has to a large extent achieved this goal by producing a surplus in most of the agricultural commodities. Despite this efficiency, large inequities, inefficient food distribution networks and high levels of malnutrition are experienced. South Africa is therefore characterised by surpluses and exports amidst food shortages - a situation of "hunger and malnutrition next to the granary" is therefore typical. These conditions necessitate a review of the current agricultural policy goals. This paper strongly argues in favour of a policy of food security aimed at both national and household level. The paper initially reviews the issues and terminology of food security as a matter of clarification. The dimensions of the food security problem in South Africa at national and household level are subsequently quantified showing that 21% of the urban population and 63% of the rural population in South Africa live below the minimum subsistence level. The evidence necessitates an evaluation of policies and programmes to address food security in South Africa. The paper looks at a range of policy alternatives and concludes that, on the one hand, production orientated policies implying technological change and commercialization of production by rural households will provide a long term impact in terms of all the food security risks. Given South Africa's inequitable distribution of infrastructure, this will have to be accompanied by infrastructural development and an improved food distribution network. On the other hand, the increasing number of urban households necessitates a reconsideration of pricing and distributional issues. Specific issues which will have to be addressed are controlled marketing, marketing margins and the influence of concentration in the food processing sectors on the price and affordability of basic foodstuffs. Attention should also be paid to the "food price dilemma" which should be taken into consideration in agricultural price policy. Finally it is important to note that food security requires economic development and large scale public commitment which is not achievable with a few cheap short term interventions.

Suggested Citation

  • van Zyl, Johan & Kirsten, Johann, 1992. "Food Security In South Africa," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 31(4), December.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:267534
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.267534
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/267534/files/agrekon-31-04-007.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/267534/files/agrekon-31-04-007.pdf?subformat=pdfa
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.267534?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Eicher, Carl K. & Staatz, John M., 1985. "Food Security Policy in Sub-Saharan Africa," 1985 Conference, August 26-September 4, 1985, Malaga, Spain 182560, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Roningen, Vernon O. & Dixit, Praveen M., 1989. "Economic Implications Of Agricultural Policy Reforms In Industrial Market Economies," Staff Reports 278843, United States Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.
    3. Michael T. Weber & John M. Staatz & Eric W. Crawford & Richard H. Bernsten & John S. Holtzman, 1988. "Informing Food Security Decisions in Africa: Empirical Analysis and Policy Dialogue," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 70(5), pages 1044-1052.
    4. T. I. Fenyes & J. Vanzyl & N. Vink, 1988. "Structural Imbalances in South African Agriculture1," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 56(2‐3), pages 112-122, June.
    5. Sen, Amartya K, 1977. "Starvation and Exchange Entitlements: A General Approach and Its Application to the Great Bengal Famine," Cambridge Journal of Economics, Cambridge Political Economy Society, vol. 1(1), pages 33-59, March.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Oosthuizen, L.K., 1998. "Agriculture As A Driving Force Of Economic Development: Suggestions For Agricultural Development Policy In Southern Africa," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 37(4), pages 1-21, December.
    2. Jayne, Thomas S. & Hajek, Milan & van Zyl, Johan, 1995. "An Analysis of Alternative Maize Marketing Policies in South Africa," Food Security International Development Working Papers 54700, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Nieuwoudt, W. L., 1990. "Efficiency Of Land Use," Agrekon, Agricultural Economics Association of South Africa (AEASA), vol. 29(4), December.
    2. Coetzee, G K & Zyl, J van, 1990. "An Assessment of Food Security in South Africa," 1990 Symposium, Agricultural Restructuring in Southern Africa, July 24-27, 1990, Swakopmund, Namibia 183578, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    3. Ghose, Ajit Kumar,, 1979. "Short-term changes in income distribution in poor agrarian economies: a study of famines with reference to Indian sub-continent," ILO Working Papers 991846383402676, International Labour Organization.
    4. Weatherspoon Dave D. & Miller Steven R. & Niyitanga Fidele & Weatherspoon Lorraine J. & Oehmke James F., 2021. "Rwanda’s Commercialization of Smallholder Agriculture: Implications for Rural Food Production and Household Food Choices," Journal of Agricultural & Food Industrial Organization, De Gruyter, vol. 19(1), pages 51-62, May.
    5. Eric B. Schneider & Kota Ogasawara & Tim J. Cole, 2021. "Health Shocks, Recovery, and the First Thousand Days: The Effect of the Second World War on Height Growth in Japanese Children," Population and Development Review, The Population Council, Inc., vol. 47(4), pages 1075-1105, December.
    6. Tisdell, Clement A., 2006. "Effects of Markets on Poverty and Economic Inequality: Evolutionary and Ethical Perspectives," Social Economics, Policy and Development Working Papers 123543, University of Queensland, School of Economics.
    7. Abdoulaye, Tahirou & Sanders, John H., 2006. "New technologies, marketing strategies and public policy for traditional food crops: Millet in Niger," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 90(1-3), pages 272-292, October.
    8. Barrett, Christopher B., 1998. "Immiserized growth in liberalized agriculture," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 26(5), pages 743-753, May.
    9. Lentz, Erin C. & Barrett, Christopher B., 2008. "Improving Food Aid: What Reforms Would Yield the Highest Payoff?," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 36(7), pages 1152-1172, July.
    10. Mahamadou Roufahi Tankari, 2017. "Cash crops reduce the welfare of farm households in Senegal," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(5), pages 1105-1115, October.
    11. Ames, Glenn C. W. & Gunter, Lewell & Davis, Claudia D., 1996. "Analysis of USA-European Community oilseeds agreements," Agricultural Economics, Blackwell, vol. 15(2), pages 97-112, November.
    12. Medellin, M. Anderson & Apedaile, L.P. & Pachico, D., 1989. "Commercialization and Price Response Within a Bean Growing Farming System of Colombia," Project Report Series 232070, University of Alberta, Department of Resource Economics and Environmental Sociology.
    13. Cameron, D. Lynne & Spriggs, John, 1991. "International Effects Of Canada'S Western Grain Stabilization Program," Western Journal of Agricultural Economics, Western Agricultural Economics Association, vol. 16(2), pages 1-11, December.
    14. Christopher B. Barrett & Stein T. Holden & Daniel C. Clay, 2002. "Can Food-for-Work Programmes Reduce Vulnerability?," WIDER Working Paper Series DP2002-24, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    15. Pierre C. Bitama & Philippe Lebailly & Patrice Ndimanya & Philippe Burny, 2020. "Cash Crops and Food Security: A Case of Tea Farmers in Burundi," Asian Social Science, Canadian Center of Science and Education, vol. 16(7), pages 1-81, July.
    16. Ferris, John N., 1991. "Analysis Of The Past And Future Impacts Of The Wheat, Feed Grains And Conservation Reserve Provisions Of The Food Security Act Of 1985 On U.S. Agriculture," 1991 Annual Meeting, August 4-7, Manhattan, Kansas 271269, American Agricultural Economics Association (New Name 2008: Agricultural and Applied Economics Association).
    17. Afari-Sefa, Victor, 2008. "The Distributional Effects of Horticultural Export Value Chains among Smallholders In Southern Ghana," 2007 Second International Conference, August 20-22, 2007, Accra, Ghana 52124, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    18. Jenifer Piesse & Colin Thirtle & Johan van Zyl, 1996. "Effects Of The 1992 Drought On Productivity In The South African Homelands: An Application Of The Malmquist Index," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 47(1‐4), pages 247-254, January.
    19. Jayne, Thomas S. & Yamano, Takashi & Nyoro, James K. & Awuor, Tom, 2000. "Do Farmers Really Benefit from High Food Prices? Balancing Rural Interests in Kenya's Maize Pricing and Marketing Policy," Food Security Collaborative Policy Briefs 54641, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    20. S. Savary & S. Bregaglio & L. Willocquet & D. Gustafson & D. Mason D’Croz & A. Sparks & N. Castilla & A. Djurle & C. Allinne & Mamta Sharma & V. Rossi & L. Amorim & A. Bergamin & J. Yuen & P. Esker & , 2017. "Crop health and its global impacts on the components of food security," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 9(2), pages 311-327, April.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:agreko:267534. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aeasaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.