Agricultural production in Greater Sekhukhune: the future for food security in a poverty node of South Africa?

This paper argues that within the range of complementary activities necessary to secure the food security of marginalised groups in South Africa in places such as Greater Sekhukhune, the aspect of agricultural production is often neglected. A comprehensive approach to food security should focus on exploiting opportunities around increasing local food availability through production, as well as stimulating food accessibility by, for example, supporting small enterprises through micro-credit, and supporting food utilisation through education. In this way a range of options is created that vulnerable people can adopt to promote their livelihoods beyond survivalist strategies. This paper explores the issue of agricultural production within Greater Sekhukhune to provide insights into the challenges facing a comprehensive food security strategy that would guarantee food supply through a range of interventions. The study in the Greater Sekhukhune District in Limpopo Province was conducted through two sets of household surveys (2004 and 2006) and the responses to the agricultural production part of these surveys are discussed. Marked changes from 2004 to 2006 were observed. For “agrarian reform†to be a success, the necessary institutional framework needs to be in place to enable a broad range of services from government and non-governmental actors. The facilitation of such “joined up governmentâ€, although in existence in theory, requires concerted political will to become a reality.Food security, agricultural production, household surveys, Greater Sekhukhune, Agricultural and Food Policy, Consumer/Household Economics, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety, Food Security and Poverty,

River flow response to changes in vegetation cover in a South African fynbos catchment

Mountain fynbos catchments in the Western Cape region of South Africa are prone to substantial changes in land cover due to invasion by exotic tree species (and their clearing), fires, and vegetation response to inter-annual variations in rainfall. While small catchment experiments and modelling studies have pointed to reductions in river flow as catchment biomass increases, there is little empirical evidence of land cover change affecting river flow in large catchments that are important sources ofwater for the region. Monitoring changes in above-ground green biomass in multiple large catchments is challenging, but may be accomplished using a remotely sensed spectral vegetation index. It was hypothesised in this study that annual river yield (river flow as a fraction of rainfall) in the Molenaars catchment near Paarl, South Africa co-varies with an index of green vegetation cover derived from satellite data (the normalised difference vegetation index, NDVI). The catchment was partitionedinto ’upland‘ and ’lowland‘ zones and the relationship between annual river yield and summer NDVI was determined for each zone over an 18-year period. There was a statistically significant negative linear relationship between annual river yield and the NDVI of the lowland zone when three outliers were excluded from the analysis. These outliers correspondedto periods with prolonged drought conditions when river yield appeared to be decoupled from vegetation water use in the lowland zone. There was no relationship between river yield and changes in the NDVI in the upland zone where plants were unlikely to have sustained access to adequate soil water for transpiration. The importance of considering the location of landcover changes in a catchment, and inadequacies in high-elevation measurements of rainfall in this mountainous region, were highlighted in the study

Agricultural production in Greater Sekhukhune: the future for food security in a poverty node of South Africa?

This paper argues that within the range of complementary activities necessary to secure the food security of marginalised groups in South Africa in places such as Greater Sekhukhune, the aspect of agricultural production is often neglected. A comprehensive approach to food security should focus on exploiting opportunities around increasing local food availability through production, as well as stimulating food accessibility by, for example, supporting small enterprises through micro-credit, and supporting food utilisation through education. In this way a range of options is created that vulnerable people can adopt to promote their livelihoods beyond survivalist strategies. This paper explores the issue of agricultural production within Greater Sekhukhune to provide insights into the challenges facing a comprehensive food security strategy that would guarantee food supply through a range of interventions. The study in the Greater Sekhukhune District in Limpopo Province was conducted through two sets of household surveys (2004 and 2006) and the responses to the agricultural production part of these surveys are discussed. Marked changes from 2004 to 2006 were observed. For “agrarian reform” to be a success, the necessary institutional framework needs to be in place to enable a broad range of services from government and non-governmental actors. The facilitation of such “joined up government”, although in existence in theory, requires concerted political will to become a reality

Report on survey in Sekhukhune to pilot the development of a food insecurity and vulnerability modelling system (FIVIMS) for South Africa

Commissioned by the FIVIMS Consortium, MarchThe data has been analysed and presented in this report to enable potential users of FIVIMS to understand vulnerability and food insecurity in Sekhukhune through the description and characterisation of diverse livelihood strategies and the measurement of key food security outcomes