Milla McLachlan

The role of wild vegetable species in household food security in maize based subsistence cropping systems

Wild vegetables (WV) are an important source of food in the maize based subsistence farming sector of rural South Africa. Their main role is as relish as they are used as an accompaniment for staple cereal based diets. They are generally reported to be rich in micronutrients. Although they may be consumed in small quantities, they influence the intake of cereal staples, manage hunger and play a central role in household food security for the poorer rural groups. Mixing several WV species in one meal contributes to dietary diversity in terms of more vegetable types as well as in terms of choice of relish. For some very poor families WV are substitutes for some food crops. The seasonal occurrence of these vegetables leaves many families without a food source during the off-season. Wild vegetables increase agro-biodiversity at the household level. This agro-biodiversity helps in buffering against the accumulation and multiplication of pests and diseases and provides important cover for the soil. Further research on agronomic, social and economic dimensions is required to understand the roles of WV in subsistence farming systems in South Africa.

Food security in South Africa : first steps toward a transdisciplinary approach

The Stellenbosch University Food Security Initiative provides a platform on which a range of research projects has been developed, spanning different faculties and departments, including the health sciences, agricultural sciences, engineering, and the social sciences. Drawing on a selection of these projects, some of which are published in a special section of this issue of Food Security, the paper highlights key emerging findings and their implications for future work in this field in South Africa. It incorporates a range of perspectives on food security in the country, highlighting different dimensions of the subject. The paper argues that a systemic approach is required to address food insecurity in South Africa, combining rigorous disciplinary and interdisciplinary research with effective approaches to research-policy linkages and social learning. The review concludes that such an approach should be institutionalised at Stellenbosch University to inform the emergence of a resilient food system for the region in the 21st Century.

Fostering Innovation for Sustainable Food Security: The Southern Africa Food Lab

This chapter describes the Southern Africa Food Lab (SAFL) as a proactive social innovation, and explores the challenges and opportunities encountered in setting up such an initiative. Food insecurity and hunger persist in urban and rural areas in South Africa, with high levels of reported hunger and persistent chronic and micronutrient malnutrition. The SAFL works to facilitate shifts towards an equitable and sustainable food system, by stimulating ongoing dialogue and collaborative learning among stakeholders, and enhancing the effectiveness, accountability and legitimacy of multi-stakeholder teams working on innovations in the food system. Key tenets of the Lab process include an emphasis on emergence rather than predetermined outcomes, creating spaces for personal reflection and authentic communication, and shared experiences of the system ‘on the ground’. Challenges include engaging the leadership of activist NGOs and community groups and to have sustained participation from senior public and private sector actors. Issues of unequal power, constrained resources and different perspectives on the balance between talking, listening and acting are likely to continue to surface and provide opportunity for reflection and innovative action as the process unfolds.

Urbanization, nutrition and development in Southern African cities

This paper draws on exisiting studies and survey data collected from 11 cities in nine Southern African countries by the African Food Security Urban Network in order to explore the relationship between urban poverty and food and nutrition insecurity in Southern Africa. The paper demonstrates that poverty underpins the high levels of food insecurity and malnutrition evident amongst the urban poor in Southern Africa; therefore, access to food, and not availability, is at the heart of the urbanisation-nutrition-development nexus. The paper reviews the state of knowledge about food insecurity and the double burden of nutritional diseases in the urban areas of Southern Africa and lays out an agenda for future research to fill significant knowledge gaps.

Nutrition-sensitive agriculture – a South African perspective

As environmental and social sustainability becomes more urgent, and the resilience of the industrial food system is under threat, addressing nutrition through food systems must go hand in hand with restructuring these systems for greater resilience. South Africa is a middle-income country with a highly dualistic agro-food system, dealing with the burden of undernutrition, diet-related chronic diseases and widespread micronutrient malnutrition. In South Africa, agriculture must maintain national food security while contributing to improving household food security through employment and production for own consumption; and providing access to a more diverse range of safe and quality foods at affordable prices. Agricultural activities can contribute to improved nutrition, if implemented in conjunction with direct nutrition interventions. This study gives an overview of the nutritional status of the South African population, and the history and current operations of the agro-food system. It identifies entry points for nutrition-sensitive agriculture (NSA) to begin to address food and nutrition security challenges. Case studies were identified using grey literature. With few exceptions, these cases were not NSA initiatives per se, yet demonstrated efforts that could inform actions to strengthen the nutrition-sensitivity of the South African food system. NSA is not an all-encompassing solution to food and nutrition insecurity in South Africa, but offers a way of strengthening the nutrition-sensitivity of agricultural initiatives. Viable entry points include linking small scale production and nutrition education; combining low external input farming and nutrition education; strengthening alternative marketing channels and local food economies; monitoring food prices; and developing appropriate governance and institutional arrangements.

Theme issue on food security

Ensuring food security for the global population now and in years to come poses an unprecedented challenge to this generation of scientists, practitioners and policy makers. We are faced with the need to increase food production and improve access to good quality safe food under conditions of a severely degraded resource base and rising social inequality. These challenges are particularly acute in southern Africa and will become more so with expected climatic changes. Successful responses will depend on simultaneously improving livelihoods and agricultural productivity, reducing waste and the demand for resource-intensive food, and improving governance in the food system. In the face of such complexity, we need new ways of understanding food security problems and new ways of working together to solve them. These themes are reflected in the nine articles that have been collected together in this theme issue on food security and related issues.

Effect of soil amendments on yield of wild okra (Corchorus olitorius) in northern KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

The consumption of semi-domesticated indigenous vegetables such as Corchorus olitorius is being promoted in South Africa. Presently, cultivation of indigenous vegetables is hampered by the absence of cultivation guidelines due to lack of agronomic research on the various production aspects. The current study evaluated the yield of C. olitorius in response to cattle manure (5 000 kg ha−1) and NPK inorganic fertiliser (500 kg ha−1). Plant height, number of branches, marketable fresh yield and shoot dry mass responded significantly (p<0.05) to the applied fertilisers. Growing Corchorus without basal fertiliser gave significantly the lowest yield even when top-dressing nitrogen fertiliser was applied. There were significant interactions between the different basal and nitrogen top-dressing fertiliser. It was concluded that the application of basal soil amendments and the interaction of basal and top-dressing resulted in increased marketable yield for C. olitorius. The highest marketable yield for both cattle manure and NPK fertiliser were obtained when these were combined with 200 kg ha−1 lime ammonium nitrate.