Stellenbosch University Food Security Initiative

April 2014

Food Security Initiative

www.sun.ac.za/foodsecurity

Welcome to the Stellenbosch University Food Security Initiative (FSI) e-news. Since the inception of the FSI, the vital importance of Food Security has been

increasingly recognized on a national and global scale.

2014 sees the continuation of many existing project and the beginning of some exciting new initiatives, particularly the Center of Excellence Collaboration with

the University of the Western Cape and Pretoria University. Read on to learn how students, researchers and educators at SU are working towards sustainable

solutions for this important global challenge.

A new Centre of Excellence in ‘Food Systems Change’ will be launched on the 15th April 2014 at UWC. SU FSI are partners in this Centre which will be led by Prof Julian May from UWC. SU will lead the sustainable production systems programme, collaborating across departments within SU as well as other institutional partners around SA. The CoE will research how to improve food security – access to sustainable and sufficient amounts of nutritious food for poor, vulnerable and marginal populations – in the context of a changing food system facing ecological, social, economic and physical challenges. Change will be investigated from the perspectives of political-economy, socio-demography, health science, agro-ecology and jurisprudence. Options for improvement will be explored by designing, testing, assessing and revising innovations in agronomy, animal and dairy science, fisheries science, food system governance, public health interventions and community organisation. Concurrently, the CoE will build a skills base for the analysis of food security through postgraduate education, training, mentoring and information sharing. We are excited to be working with colleagues across South Africa and would especially like to thank Prof May for his leadership through the project development and as he leads the Centre.

The Centre for Excellence (CoE)

Selected and key findings of the baseline survey indicate that food security existed in only 63% of households. Nutrient quality of the diets of mothers and primary caregivers in formal households was better than those living in informal households, although still poor overall. Prevalence of stunting (low height for age) was 20.7%, classified as moderate severity of malnutrition according to the World Health Organization (WHO) and underweight and wasting in children were 5.6% and 1.2% respectively, classified as low severity. Overweight and obesity occurred in 27% and 37% of mothers and primary caregivers respectively and indicated an increased risk for non-communicable diseases. Exclusive breastfeeding during the first six months of life was a rare practice in these communities. Water, formula milk and/or food were introduced at an early age. Comprehensive education and support at antenatal, intra-partum and postnatal level seemed lacking and community perceptions and convention contributed to mixed feeding practices. Mothers seemed ill equipped to negotiate optimal infant feeding practices with role-players at home.

The Community Nutrition Security Project (CNSP)

The Community Nutrition Security Project (CNSP)

Overall, the CNSP baseline found that poor infant and young child feeding (IYCF) practices and childhood under-nutrition co-existed with maternal overweight /obesity. Dietary diversity of all mothers and primary caregivers was low. Improving dietary diversity should be a priority in interventions addressing food insecurity. Phase 2 of the CNSP applies a systematic approach to identify and engage with many different stakeholders who can impact infant and young child feeding (ICYF) practices in the area. A strategically selected group of key stakeholders in IYCF explored the perspectives on their roles, commitments and capacities to address IYCF. Factors influencing IYCF practices were identified as poor knowledge, poverty, unemployment, misuse of CSG, teenage pregnancies, child neglect, gangsterism, drug abuse and HIV. The process highlighted some collective capacity that could be unlocked to address IYCF. The liaison group consisting of Departments of Health, Education, Social Services and Community Development and Planning was highlighted as a forum where joint solutions can be developed. The community is willing to engage, the University can act as a vehicle for advocacy and knowledge, and the Business forum was also mentioned as a medium for possible interventions. Going forward, the CNSP aims to explore different approaches for improving various aspects of food security with a wide range of stakeholders and to start building cohesion for the interventions required in Phase 3 of CNSP.

The Division of Human Nutrition gratefully acknowledges the funding received from the Stellenbosch University Food Security Initiative to initiate the Community-based Nutrition Security Project (CNSP)

in the Breede Valley, Western Cape, South Africa.

EU4Food

The availability of water for irrigation purposes is becoming a serious concern for smallholder famers in the former homeland areas of South Africa. This is due to both global weather change and increased competition for fresh water between the agricultural, industrial and domestic sectors. Food production increases in smallholder agriculture is seen as a possible solution to the food insecurity challenges in the rural areas of the Limpopo Province. Smallholder farmers in these areas use traditional furrow irrigation systems and their farm crop productivity remains very low, as compared to commercial farms in the same area. This study aims to increase water productivity (WP) by utilizing different innovations in order to facilitate better irrigation management of precious water resources. The study was conducted over a two year period from 2012 to 2013 on two farms in the rural areas of Giyani. The first innovation was the use of NIR technology for predicting soil chemical parameters for fertilizer requirements. This innovation aims at improving the soil nutrient management for smallholder farming by developing an affordable, and user friendly soil fertility advice method as standard laboratory soil chemical analysis is expensive and not used by smallholder farmers in the area. Results showed that good prediction models were obtained from the first innovation. Current tomato crop production systems were also tested on both farms in order to evaluate the WP status of traditional drip and furrow irrigation. Improved management practices, such as soil nutrient management and mulching were introduced in the 2nd and 3rd seasons in order to increases WP at field level. Results showed tomato yield increased from an average of 26.5 t/ha (season 1) to 120.9 t/ha (season 2) and WP increases from 4.61kg/m-3 to 17.69 kg/m3. The study concluded that effective soil nutrient management and effective irrigation management brought about significant increases in yield and WP, and can therefore improve the livelihoods of rural smallholder farmers in the Giyani area.

EU FP7-IRSES Ecodry Project: Sharing best agroecological practise for resilient production systems in dryland and drought conditions

This joint exchange project aims to enhance understanding and share knowledge on strategies to build the resilience of farming systems to natural and man-made impacts in dryland and drought situations, including climate change, through collaboration of joint research and capacity building activities between participating universities: the Centre for Agroecology and Food Security at Coventry University, UK; University of Extremadura, Spain; University of Yucatan, Mexico; University of Stellenbosch, South Africa; and National Centre for Research and Development-Badia Research Programme, Jordan. The start-up workshop for the EU FP7-IRSES Ecodry Project was held at Coventry University, UK, from 24-27 February 2014, and was attended by two delegates from Stellenbosch University, namely, Julia Harper (Food Security Initiative Manager) and Dr Ailsa Hardie (Soil Science). During this workshop all the partners presented talks on the research conducted at their respective institutes and details of the research collaboration was decided upon. This project will allow PhD students and researchers from the non-EU partner institutes to travel to EU partner institutes (in UK and Spain) to conduct research on the main theme of the IRSES Ecodry project for up to 8 months each year. The EU partner researchers and students can also travel to the non-EU partners, and a research sharing workshop will be held annually at one of the non-EU institutes. The workshop will be held at Stellenbosch University in 2016.

SLSFS – Social Learning for Sustainable Food Systems

The NRF funded SLSFS project continues to gain momentum. The project is an innovation- , research-, and action-oriented strategic alliance between academia, business, civil society and government to enhance food security – it facilitates innovation in regional food systems and establish an ongoing participatory learning process on innovation initiatives. Some of these initiatives include the institutional strengthening of the Southern African Food Lab (SAFL) through collective learning and reflection and learning journeys, innovation workshops and the publication of a learning history about the work of the SAFL.

In 2014, three Masters students have graduated and four PhD candidates are entering their second year of study. The project has also produced three published papers thus far (two in Food Security and one in the Agribusiness Management Review). Collaboration includes PLAAS (UWC) and Graduate School of Business (UCT) as well as REOS partners. We collectively explored different conceptualizations of the concept of Food Security, which contributed to critical thinking on Food System Change. The SLSFS also Informed development of NRF application for Centre of Excellence on Food Systems Change.

SLSFS – Social Learning for Sustainable Food Systems

Social learning, which can occur through facilitated dialogue and reflection, is a deep and sustainable way of learning and influencing behavioural change; it needs to be built into the process of policymaking, programme implementation and monitoring and evaluation; the role of advocacy in framing the problem, highlighting mutual gains for different sectors, and putting “food system” on the political agenda; By engaging in dialogue and discussing our differing ethical perspectives, we are mindful of how our decisions affect complex systems - through participation and commitment, a more tolerant and open understanding of ethics in food systems will develop, resulting in a greater knowledge of systemic complexity; raises the importance of leadership, including both ‘champions’, and good managers at all levels.

Supporting Smallholders into Commercial Agriculture (SSCA)

The Southern Africa Food Lab’s (SAFL) Supporting Smallholders into Commercial Agriculture: a social dialogue (SSCA) project enters its second phase this month with the assistance of funding from the Ford Foundation, an organization that has been consistently engaged with the project from the start. While the initial phase produced foundational knowledge and formulated a number of innovations defined to shift the smallholder farming system and agro-food value chains to enhance long-term food security, this new phase will focus on the practical implementation of these ideas in a series of prototypes in Mopani District in Limpopo Province and Umkhanyakude District in KwaZulu-Natal. As small-scale farmers’ own voices and experiences are critical components in any attempt to change the state of issues affecting small-scale agriculture, the second phase appropriately kicked off this month with a workshop in Limpopo led by the Farmers’ Voices innovation. The workshop aimed to motivate the engagement of small-scale farmers to influence and advise on the development and implementation of the pilots and the policies and support models that directly affect them. A dialogue focused on the issue of engaging small-scale farmers with food safety, ethical, and environmental standards is to follow next. The generous funding from Ford Foundation has also helped to enable the launch of the Transformative Scenarios Project, a SAFL project which aims to bring key stakeholder groups together to determine how the myriad variables in the food system might influence food security over the next 20 years through a series of coherent possible futures. These scenarios can help create a clearer map to support decision-making and action by all players across the public, private and civil society sectors.

Supporting Smallholders into Commercial Agriculture (SSCA)

Up to 70% of South African smallholder farmers are women. The Foodlab aims to work closely with smallholder farmers to improve market access, crop production and overall food and economic security within these communities.