In 2023, South Africa faced significant challenges in ensuring food security. Nasele Mehlomakulu, deputy director-general for food security and agrarian reform at the department of agriculture, land reform, and rural development, discusses how this year’s events have impacted the accessibility, price, and availability of food across the country.
Mehlomakulu looks at both the successes and challenges in Mzansi’s endeavours to tackle food security. He also explores the metrics employed to gauge food and nutritional security, shedding light on the evaluation criteria.
Influencing factors
Additionally, Mehlomakulu provides insights into the factors influencing food and nutritional security in the country, emphasising the role of consumers in shaping its status.
“The access to basic services, the affordable water and sanitation, those have a direct impact in terms of food security in the country,” he says.
He further talks about the shift in food affordability since the global pandemic and in this episode, we find out if those shifts can be positive or negative.
“Our sector is a job-intensive sector, we are happy to see since 2020 that we have created new jobs within the sector while maintaining our year-to-year average of about 850 000 jobs,” he shares.
In this episode, Mehlomakulu also discusses:
- How indigenous food plays a role in food security;
- Where we are by ending hunger globally; and
- The Agro-energy Fund’s role in helping farmers.
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ALSO READ: Mzansi’s agritourism industry braces for hectic bumper season
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