By Thembi Mabhula

Urban agriculture has become extremely crucial for the urban community—more than ever before. Greater numbers of poor people are settling in urban areas as a result of rural to urban migration creating more food insecure households. Urban food security has become a tremendous challenge for South African cities, exacerbated by the excessive increase of the cost of living due to the adverse global economic situation. And the reality is that the urban poor have been hit the hardest by the global food deficit. The unemployed have been pushed to even lower levels of affordability, because they depend on money to access food.

South Africa needs to adjust its governmental policies to maximise agricultural production amongst urban communities. Time is running out, and the levels of hunger are growing. Policy should not be static; it must respond to changing circumstances and constantly be updated.

As a result of the global recession, many people have lost their jobs or have had hours of work reduced, which greatly affects their earnings, as employers have been forced to restructure to absorb the pressure of the recession. Simultaneously, the rise in food prices means that people eat less. To illustrate the point further, the increase in South Africa's consumer price index (CPI), which is used by the South African Reserve Bank for its inflation target has hovered above 6 percent over the past few months (Fin24.com). The unemployment rate increased from 23.6 percent in the second quarter to 24.5 percent in the third quarter of 2009. In its latest quarterly labour force survey, Statistics SA said the total number of unemployed people grew to 4,192 million in the past three months to September 2009 (Sunday Times, Business Times, 01/11/2009).

Unemployment, hunger, and malnutrition are commonplace. In the big cities, most of the income the poor bring home is spent on food. There is a growing need for policy review around land tenure, use and access of water for agricultural purposes, and the provision of space for fresh fruit and vegetable markets accessible to small farmers and consumers. Urban agriculture lacks support from municipalities who often see it as a problem to be eradicated rather than as a part of the solution to making the city and its environment more sustainable.

Land Tenure

A number of municipalities across South Africa have not played a sufficient role at planning stages to ensure that land is zoned and set apart for urban agriculture and properly included in the integrated development approach. There is no guaranteed land tenure and land security available to urban agriculture projects and practitioners. This implies that communities don’t have access to zoned space designated for crop production and even markets to sell garden produce. Communities struggle to get land where they can practice sound crop production. Some people eventually resort to using school grounds or open spaces within their environments that are not zoned for agriculture. When projects apply for funding, land ownership is part of the pre-requisites for access to such funding.

Urban planning and planned urban environments generally consider farming as a non-urban land use activity. Many urban-based projects have failed and given up on agriculture as they could not get appropriate land for agriculture. Urban agriculture is perceived as a rural activity interfering with modernisation (Kekani 2006). Policy on land tenure needs to be adjusted to allow for approval and zoning of unused land, for example land that used to be buffer zones during apartheid and land found on peri-urban areas. 

Access to Markets

Land tenure policies and economic policies in South African urban areas fail to influence the establishment of fresh produce markets in central areas that are accessible to small farmers, hawkers and consumers. One of the major prerequisites for a vibrant agricultural enterprise is the availability of a market, which is a critical element to underpin profit margins and general sustainability. A number of small farmers or subsistence farmers find themselves with the only alternative of setting up informal vegetable stands on the roadside. Such vegetable stands are scattered across our urban areas. If they could be consolidated under one roof with the necessary infrastructure, for example lockable stalls, toilets, kitchens and water facilities, then entrepreneurs would be able to practice formal ways of doing business.

Cities carry the advantage of a dense population, which is required for a market to thrive. There is no provision of land in the inner city for markets that are accessible to buyers and sellers, particularly those who do not have cars and who rely on public transport. In most cases fresh produce markets are situated long distances out of town and away from busy streets where consumers are in large numbers. These markets are most suitable to big commercial farmers where the systems in place are unfavourable to hawkers and small farmers who want to sell their produce. Ideally, poor communities that produce agricultural products are able to supply their domestic needs and sell the surplus to generate funds that can be put into general use to sustain their livelihoods.

Urban agriculture benefits poor households through direct saving on purchased food as well as generating income through sales of produced crops and provides a diversified range of nutritious food. For most households urban agriculture is a survival strategy. The promotion of homestead or backyard gardens forms an integral part of urban agriculture. Urban agriculture has the potential for creating micro-enterprises that can be owned and operated by the community members without too much initial capital. Also, inner city churches and community service organisations can use urban agriculture as part of their programmes for senior citizens, homeless people, parolees and the disabled.

Water Supply

Water is a major prerequisite for agricultural activities, particularly crop production. Urban water is metered and naturally its use comes with a cost. Metered water is bad news for urban gardens since most gardens produce at subsistence level, the major aim being to supplement food at home. Whatever is sold generates very little profit, because metered water is costly. There needs to be a policy supported by the government to provide for alternative means of access to water. In some countries where urban agriculture is promoted by the government, boreholes are put in place as well as other water conservation systems, like using reclaimed water, grey water and rain harvesting.

Water is quite costly and farming needs a lot of water. Farming, including dry-land agriculture and forestry plantations, is an important part of the economy and sustains millions of people in the rural areas; it is also the sector which accounts for around half the nation’s water use. In some urban areas there are water catchments, rivers or even dams that can be useful for agricultural production. In some cases, people have been denied by those in authority the use of water from these dams. The local government can create more water reservoirs to create more sources of water that will be by far cheaper than metered municipality water. Home gardens face the challenge of greater water costs at the end of each month. This hampers the level of crop production from homestead producers. Effective training of project people on water conservation would also help a great deal, but this implies that training needs to be incorporated into an integrative policy and planning approach. In some cases, people who are engaged in homestead gardens are tenants, who at the end of the month find themselves in trouble with the landlord, for using excess water.

Other Considerations

A holistic approach to policy should include fundamental essentials that can sustain community-based projects and social dynamics embedded within community strata. Social needs and values regarding crop production need to be considered in the formation process of both the policy and the implementation of food security projects. Policy should focus on the nature of households, like demographics, gender equity and youth values.

Most agricultural projects are demographically dominated by women, with very few men and youth. Women-headed families are on the increase and this means that more women are becoming bread winners for their families, yet most are unemployed. Empowerment programmes need to be designed with a directed focus on both the women and the youth. Skills training programmes remain an ever vital need. Training needs to empower communities on agricultural and entrepreneurial skills. The education curriculum also needs to be reviewed so that it can once more begin to instill a culture of agriculture and farming in our children. 

Policy formulators need to consider bringing in new urban technologies that are ecologically sound and can improve health and nutrition. Such technologies should encourage urban farming systems that are compatible with urban environments, and include urban livestock farming systems that promote nutrient cycling, solid and human waste management systems that conserve water and utilise nutrient cycles, solid waste composting and recycling of biodegradable household and other wastes, utilisation of surface water run-off, human waste technologies based on low water use, local treatment and productive use (for example, neighborhood and household systems incorporating aquaculture), and tree production for food, microclimate control, beautification and hazard control (Spies, 1998).

There is also a growing need to look deeper into policies and research relating to climatic changes. Global warming is known for causing changes in rain seasons, causing floods in coastal areas or even droughts in other areas. Climatic changes affect almost every sector of the economy, including agriculture, health and tourism. Frustratingly, the debate in South Africa around climatic changes is very limited. Statistical evidence suggests that South Africa has been getting hotter over the past four decades, with average yearly temperatures increasing by 0.13°C per decade between 1960 and 2003. Moreover, the country’s average rainfall, estimated at 450mm per year, is well below the world’s average of 860mm, while evaporation is comparatively high. In addition, surface and underground water resources are limited (Hassan, 2006).

Agriculture remains the major primary source of food. Therefore, threats to food production need to be taken seriously. Climatic changes amongst other things will have a negative impact on the country’s GDP (Gross Domestic Product), which on speculation can drop by 15 percent by 2050, affecting tourism and causing more unemployment. Other effects cited by Hassan that are likely to occur include a rise in temperature which would raise sea surface temperature, resulting in the migration of species residing along the coast. Studies have also indicated that the occurrence of ‘red tide’ would increase. Dense concentrations of red tide organisms can suffocate fish by clogging or irritating their gills, so that they cannot extract sufficient oxygen from the water. For this reason, a ‘red tide’ often renders seafood toxic for days. Other predicted results of climate change are changes in sand buildups on the coast and a predicted increase in the intensity of storms. However, if policy is well directed, effective control of the effects of global warming can easily be managed.

In Conclusion

Urgent steps to speed up the introduction and effective support of urban agriculture in all our urban areas need to be implemented. Close monitoring and research needs to be applied to investigate why the implementation of urban agriculture is failing. Although land is a scarce resource, there are still open fields that can be exploited for urban agricultural production. Most of these areas have people with sound farming background who, however, need funds to create sustainable projects. Government needs to use an integrated approach to draw up relevant policies with the private sector and civil society in a bid to actively promote urban agriculture. 

References
•    Spies L, 1998. CFP Report 29G, Municipality Policy Review: Urban Agriculture In South Africa.
•    Kekana DS, 2006. A Social Economic Analysis of Urban Agriculture: The Soshanguve Case Study. http://upetd.up.ac.za/thesis/available/etd-08272007-154407
•    Hassan R, 2006. Climate Change and African Agriculture, Policy Note No. 21, August 2006, CEEPA.
•    http://www.fin24.com/articles/default/display_article.aspx?ArticleId=1518-25_2558999