Human Development and Food Sovereignty: A Step Closer to Achieving Food Security in South Africa’s Rural Households

Abstract

Food security strategies are determined by the prevailing realities within households and communities. Therefore, it is not surprising that in South Africa agricultural transformation is an important food security strategy. This article examines the role of human development and food sovereignty in fostering conditions that enable rural households to enhance their food security capabilities. Using an in-depth analysis of literature, national, regional and international instruments, this article takes its departure from the fact that subsistence agriculture is an effective strategy for improving household food needs when implemented within the broader human rights framework of human development. The results reveal that agriculture has the potential to increase household food security if appropriate agricultural technologies and productive resources such as land are made accessible to households. Further, for agriculture to attain optimal efficiency as a food security strategy, policies on agrarian transformation should be implemented within broader social development programmes.

Keywords

Agrarian transformation food security food sovereignty poverty poverty alleviation subsistence agriculture

Introduction

The importance and relevance of the right of access to food is that it is at the core of human development. This is because human survival is dependent on the proper realisation of the right of access to food. This entails that for the right to food to be effectively realised, factors that negatively impact on its realisation should be addressed. In South Africa, one such factor is income poverty, which makes it difficult for households to escape the poverty trap. This is because most households rely on social welfare grants as a means of livelihood. For instance, the General Household Survey of 2015 (GHS; Government of South Africa, 2015: 63–64) indicates that 21.7% of households nationally depended on social grants as a source of income in 2015. At the end of 2018 there were 17,731,402 recipients of social grants in South Africa (Stats SA Factsheet, 2018). This wider dependence on social grants makes households vulnerable to food insecurity due to lack of income to access basic needs including food. As a result most households, especially those that are rural, bear the brunt of severe lack of access to food. The GHS indicates that rural provinces experienced inadequate and severely inadequate access to food within that period (GHS 2015: 65–66).

As a result, income poverty is a direct indicator of human poverty (Hulme et al., 2001; Pronk, 2005). According to Ludi and Bird (2007), who borrow the World Bank definition on income poverty, a person is considered poor if their consumption or income level falls below the minimum necessary to meet basic needs. In addition, another factor that prevents households from escaping the poverty trap is socioeconomic deprivation. This is defined as the lack of social and economic benefits that are considered basic necessities of a society or community or in a broader sense of a region (Sarkar et al., 2014: 272–273). Accordingly, the Human Development Report (HDR) (2000) states that human poverty is a major obstacle to attaining a decent standard of living and realising human rights (HDR, 2000: 33). This entails that poverty has the propensity to deny households access to food due to a lack of income to purchase food that is available in the markets. According to paragraph 19 of the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen Declaration), poverty perpetuates food insecurity in that it has various manifestations including a lack of income and productive resources sufficient to ensure sustainable livelihoods. This means social problems such as poverty that often culminate in food insecurity can only be efficiently addressed through the effective implementation of comprehensive social development programmes.

As a result human rights, including the right to food, place an obligation on states to enact policies that advance both civil and socioeconomic rights. Such policies should efficiently address the state of social wellbeing of individuals. According to the Report of the Special Rapporteur on the right to food (2008), the right to food is the right to have regular, permanent and unrestricted access, either directly or by means of financial purchases, to quantitatively and qualitatively adequate and sufficient food corresponding to the cultural traditions of the people to which the consumer belongs, and ensures a physical and mental, individual and collective, fulfilling and dignified life free of fear. In this instance, the right to food plays a vital role in ensuring states adopt measures aimed at reducing poverty and food insecurity by adopting food security interventions. This means states should adopt a human rights approach in improving food security with the aim of ensuring that rights are not only fulfilled and protected but are also respected.

According to O’Connor et al. (2008: 6), a human rights approach to poverty reduction refers to methodologies and processes that adhere to a set of core principles and standards derived from the international human rights legal framework. This entails that state policies on poverty alleviation should not only be aimed at intervention but also empowerment. According to paragraph 18 of the United Nations Principles and Guidelines for a Human Rights Approach to Poverty Alleviation Food Interventions (2006) (the UN Principles and Guidelines on Poverty Interventions), one reason why the human rights framework is compelling in the context of poverty is that it has the potential to empower the poor. As a result, state parties have adopted human rights frameworks that give effect to the right to food within the broader context of human rights. The inclusion of the right to food within the broader framework of human rights has also led states to adopt food-specific frameworks to give effect to this right.

The government of South Africa has thus committed itself internationally to realising the right of access to sufficient food. South Africa has since ratified the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1996). It has signed the Universal Declaration on Human Rights (UDHR). In 2000, South Africa adopted the United Nations Millennium Declaration (Millennium Declaration), which sets out the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and in 2009, it adopted the Rome Declaration of the World Summit on Food Security (Rome Declaration, 2009). Goal 1 of the MDGs focused on the eradication of extreme hunger and poverty and a target to ‘halve the proportion of people who suffer from hunger’. The 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) replaced the MDGs on 2 August 2015. Goals 1 and 2 of the SDGs provide that the member states to the 2030 Agenda commit to ensure that poverty, hunger and food insecurity are eradicated by 2030. Principle 3 of the Rome Declaration provides that the state parties must strive for a comprehensive twin-track approach to food security that consists of:

(a) direct action to immediately tackle hunger as it occurs among those most vulnerable to it; and

(b) sustainable medium- and long-term agricultural, food security, nutrition and rural development programmes to eliminate the root causes of hunger and poverty, also through the progressive realisation of the right to adequate food.

These commitments align with South Africa’s vision as outlined in the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) (1994) and the National Development Plan (NDP) 2030 (2012). The central aim of the RDP was to ensure that the quality of life of all South Africans be improved. As a result, it set out 10 priority areas on which the government needed to focus to achieve its objectives of a better quality of life for all. The priority areas included the provision of basic services in the form of nutrition and social security and social welfare. In the short term this called for an all-encompassing social welfare system that was consistent with section 27(1)(c) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996 (the Constitution of South Africa). To this end, short-term food security interventions in the form of social grants have a meaningful impact, judging by the number of recipients who have benefited from state grants. A projection between 2003 and 2011 reveals that in the year 2003 there were 3.1 million adult and 3.7 million beneficiaries of social grants. These beneficiaries increased significantly in 2011 with approximately 5 million adult and 10 million beneficiaries (Stats SA Poverty Trends Report, 2014; Samson et al. 2006: 2). This number of social grant beneficiaries has since tripled with nearly 18 million beneficiaries by 2018, making social welfare the second highest source of income in South Africa (Stats SA Factsheet, 2018).

Paragraph 24 of the NDP 2030 aims to inform government policy for eliminating poverty and reducing inequality. In line with the White Paper for Social Welfare of 1997, paragraph 53 of the NDP 2030 endeavours the government to develop a comprehensive social protection system that will include the provision of social grants. This provision is important in the fight against food insecurity because the most common short-term measure in South Africa aimed at reducing food insecurity is the provision of social grants. To some extent these grants assist households in meeting their basic survival needs (Brand, 2002). Research studies indicate that social grants play a vital role in alleviating household poverty especially in child- and female-headed households (Goldblatt, 2009). This entails that social grants as a food security intervention provide a formidable immediate strategy in reducing food insecurity in rural households due to unemployment and lack of income. However, in the long term, social welfare is insufficient to provide for future food needs. The reason for this is that social grants seek to address the immediate food security needs of households. Considering the significant increase in social grant beneficiaries, it is proposed that subsistence agriculture should be promoted as part of the complementary transformative social protection. According to Devereux (2016: 52), the focus of social protection is to alleviate income poverty and manage livelihood vulnerability. This entails that households are empowered to enhance their incomes and be self-reliant (Devereux, 2016: 52–57). Subsistence farming as a livelihood strategy has two main outputs: to provide food for household consumption and an extra source of income (Morton, 2007: 19680). Moreover, studies show that access to land and farming activities is vital in securing households against severe hunger (Pienaar and Von Fintel, 2013: 19).

Hence, in fulfilling its medium- and long-term obligations, the South African government has implemented legislative frameworks and policies aimed at reducing food insecurity through agrarian reform including subsistence farming. The Medium-Term Strategic Framework (MTSF): A Framework to guide government’s programme in the electoral mandate period 2009–2014, which was incorporated in the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (2009), provides that to halve poverty, governments should develop a comprehensive rural development strategy. This should encompass land and agrarian reform and food security through promoting the expansion of small-scale agricultural production and other economic activities. In 2013 the MTSF 2009–2014 was replaced by the MTSF 2014–2019 as part of the implementation of the NDP 2030 adopted in 2012. In terms of the MTSF, poverty alleviation through agrarian means is an important food security intervention because subsistence agriculture not only ensures food security but also provides income opportunities for households (Altman et al., 2009). This is because central to the use of subsistence agriculture as a food security strategy is the concept of food sovereignty. According to Wittman (2011: 88), food sovereignty entails the right of people to healthy and culturally appropriate food produced through ecologically sound and sustainable methods, and to define their own food and agriculture systems.

Therefore, the above-mentioned food security strategies are consistent with section 27(1)(b) of the Constitution of South Africa, which provides that everyone has the right of access to sufficient food. Section 27(2) of the Constitution of South Africa provides that the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights. This imposes an obligation on the government to take legislative and other measures to ensure that strategies are in place to achieve the realisation of the right of access to food. The importance of the right of access to food in minimising hunger and lack of food for poor and vulnerable households has been the subject of court scrutiny in South Africa for years. In the case of Khosa v Minister of Social Development (2004 6 SA 505 (CC) para 80), it was held that the right to social security be extended to include permanent residents as recipients of social grants. In para 114 the court reasoned that the right to social security right goes to one of the core values of our Constitution – human dignity. The state has an obligation to ensure its citizens have access to basic needs such as food, clean water and shelter. Social security is a vital component of the social system that is available for those who cannot provide these basic needs for themselves or their families. In the recent case of Black Sash Trust v Minister of Social Development (2017 ZACC 8 para 36) the Constitutional Court, in granting direct access, held as follows:

The constitutional right to social assistance that for many, especially children, the elderly and the indigent, provide the bare bones of a life of dignity, equality and freedom is directly involved, across the land.

Therefore, the aim of this paper is to discuss the importance of human development and food sovereignty in promoting subsistence agriculture as food security strategy. The argument presented in this paper is that sustainable subsistence agriculture can only be achieved within the broader framework of human development, land reform and rural development. Further that food sovereignty can only be achieved in light of sustainable farming that takes into account the needs and demands of rural households. Firstly, the relationship between human development and the right of access to food is discussed. Secondly, the concept of food sovereignty as established in international law and its interconnection to food security is examined. Thirdly, international instruments, regional instruments and national legislative frameworks and policies that give effect to South Africa’s obligations to promote agriculture as food security strategy are discussed to indicate the importance of subsistence farming in promoting food security in rural communities.

Human development and the right of access to food

In South Africa, legislative frameworks aim to ensure human development and survival and curb the inequality brought about by poverty and food insecurity (Liebenberg and Goldblatt, 2007; Mafunganyika, 2011). The inequality perpetuated by food insecurity is evident from the fact that although poverty is widespread in South Africa, those living in rural areas still bear the brunt of deprivation and disadvantage (Binza, 2007). This position has not changed over the years. In 2015, at least 25.2% (13.8 million people) of South Africa’s population lived in extreme poverty. Taking into account the Upper Bound Poverty Line and the Lower Bound Poverty Line, 30.3 million people lived in poverty, amounting to 55.5% of the population. The majority of the African population accounted for 64.2% of those that faced poverty, with the Eastern Cape and Limpopo provinces being the most impoverished provinces with at least 72.9% and 72.4% residents respectively in poor households (Stats SA Poverty Trends Report, 2017). As a result, the government has taken several measures, including the promulgation and adoption of legislative frameworks and policies aimed at possibly reducing food insecurity in rural areas. The Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Strategy of 2000 (ISRDS) and the CRDP are examples of such measures. The importance of these policies can be found in the argument advanced by Taylor (2002) that the proper realisation of socioeconomic rights is an essential element of human security. According to Taylor (2002: 31–32) human security:

is based on the idea that all human beings should be able to live a life of dignity and respect and that this can only be achieved when human beings are free from both political fear and socio-economic want.

According to the definition coined at the 1996 World Food Summit in Rome ‘food security’ exists when all people at all times have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. This definition reflects the elements of the right to food as set out in paragraph 6 of CESCR General Comment No. 12, 1999 of the Committee Economic Social Cultural Rights (General Comment 12) namely availability, accessibility and adequacy. Therefore, tackling household food insecurity especially in rural areas is an advancement of human security and development. This is so because the defining feature of food insecurity is that it entails the restriction of opportunities for a person to pursue their wellbeing (Kapindu, 2006). Food insecurity diminishes human capabilities and renders the affected persons not only economically vulnerable, but also physically insecure (McMurray and Jansen van Rensburg, 2004). This in turn affects human development and wellbeing, which requires governments to promote access to basic amenities such as food, healthcare and education etc.

Hence, human development plays a vital role in ensuring that people’s capabilities to live long and healthy lives are strengthened (Alkire, 2010). This is so because factors such as hunger and food insecurity limit the capability of people to live a dignified life by preventing households and individuals from exercising opportunities such as education and healthcare that can help their development (African Human Development Report, 2012). Achieving human development ultimately leads households to adopt processes that enable them to escape hunger and food insecurity. This entails that households are equipped with the capabilities to be food secure (Burchi and De Muro, 2012).

To this end, section 27(1)(b) of the Constitution of South Africa imposes a positive obligation on the state to ensure that everyone has access to sufficient food and water, subject to certain limitations imposed by section 27(2). This section provides that the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures within its available resources. In the case of Soobramoney v Minister of Health, Kwazulu-Natal (1998 (1) SA 765 (CC) para 22-24) the Constitutional Court went on to consider whether Mr Soobramoney ought to receive dialysis treatment at a state hospital in accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, which entitle everyone to access to health care services provided by the state (s 27). The court noted that the state has a constitutional obligation within its available resources to provide healthcare as well as sufficient food and water and social security. The court found, however, that the Department of Health in KwaZulu-Natal does not have sufficient funds to cover the cost of services being provided to the public. However, in the case of Government of RSA v Grootboom (2001 1 SA 46 (CC) para 38–46), the Constitutional Court held that the unavailability of resources does not prevent the government from enacting appropriate policies and programmes aimed at the realisation of socio-economic rights. This duty entails enacting appropriate programmes that will enable individuals and households to enjoy their right of access to food. The state, taking its cue from section 7(2) of the Constitution of South Africa, must in other words have short-, medium- and long-term measures in place such as the provision of social grants to meet immediate food needs and skills development in subsistence agriculture to meet future food needs. This will ensure respect for, as well as the protection, promotion and fulfilment of the right of access to sufficient food in accordance with its national and international commitments and obligations. Such interventions also take cognisance of the fact that people living in poverty not only have needs but also have rights, the right to food being one such right (Brand, 2005).

These provisions make it clear that socioeconomic rights require the government to take positive measures to enable people to access certain basic needs (resources, opportunities and services) necessary for human beings to lead a dignified life (Khoza, 2007; Brand, 2005). Accordingly, socioeconomic rights are important to those groups that are often affected by poverty and experience barriers that block their access to resources, opportunities and services in society (Manamela, 2004). According to Liebenberg and Goldblatt (2007), socioeconomic rights have as one of their aims to bridge the social disparities between the privileged and the poor.

Socioeconomic rights create an interconnectedness between social development and human wellbeing to enable governments to come up with commitments and goals aimed at improving the livelihood of people through development (Copenhagen Declaration, 1995). At the Copenhagen summit, governments recognised that human rights are indivisible, interrelated and mutually reinforcing (Sano, 2000). Paragraph 6 of the Copenhagen Declaration endeavours governments to take cognisance of the fact that economic development, social development and environmental protection are interdependent and mutually reinforcing components of sustainable development.

In adopting such a holistic approach, the right to food is realised within the rights-based approach in the context of the right to development. According to the Declaration on the Right to Development of 1986 (DRD, 1986), development is an inalienable human right by virtue of that every human person and all peoples are entitled to participate in, contribute to and enjoy economic, social, cultural and political development, in that all human rights and fundamental freedoms can be fully realised. In light of the above definition, the right to development plays a central role in realising the right to food. This is so because all rights that is civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights are indivisible and interdependent and to promote development, equal attention and urgent consideration should be given to the implementation, promotion and protection of such rights (Preamble of the DRD, 1986). This entails that for the right to food to be effectively realised, factors that negatively impact on its realisation should be addressed. In South Africa, these factors include geographical location of rural areas, gender inequality, unemployment and large number of people in households (Dugard and Mohlakoana, 2009: 546–548; Lalthapersad-Pillay, 2008: 18; Mears and Blaauw, 2011: 78–95).

The concept of food sovereignty in achieving food security

Central to the use of subsistence agriculture as a food security strategy is the concept of food sovereignty. The Via Campesina at the 1996 World Food Security Summit reflected the importance of food sovereignty in the realisation of the right to food in the statement where it was submitted that the right to food could only be realised where food sovereignty is guaranteed. Commitment 3 of the Rome Plan of Action provides that state parties intend to pursue participatory and sustainable food, agriculture, fisheries, forestry and rural development policies and practices in high and low potential areas that are essential for adequate and reliable food supplies at the household, national, regional and global levels and combat pests, drought and desertification, considering the multifunctional character of agriculture. This character is evidenced by the fact that agriculture can serve two functions for households: a source of food and a source of income (Aliber and Hart, 2009: 439–440). These functions are vital in the context of rural development where non-farm and on-farm activities ensure a holistic approach to realising the right of access to food.

Paragraph 23 of the World Food Security Plan of Action of 1996 (the Rome Plan of Action, 1996) provides that it is imperative that food production be increased, particularly in low-income, food-deficit countries, to meet the needs of the undernourished and food insecure, the additional food requirements resulting from population growth, demand for new food products due to rising standards of living and changes in consumption patterns. This paragraph brings to light two important aspects, firstly, that in the absence of sufficient food production food security cannot be achieved. Secondly, that individuals, households, communities and states cannot achieve the right to food without being food secure. It is thus proper to conclude that food sovereignty plays a vital role in realising the right to food.

The key elements of food sovereignty

The role of food sovereignty in promoting food security and the right of access to food is reflected in its key elements. Windfuhr and Jonsén (2005) identify four key elements of food sovereignty through the promotion of:

(1) the rights-based approach in realising the right to food;

(2) access to productive resources;

(3) agroecological production as a way to produce sufficient food; and

(4) trade and local markets that produce sufficient food and that limit food imports and dumping.

These four elements overlap with the concept of food security and the right to food that have the following elements: food availability, food accessibility and nutritional adequacy and utilisation and food stability. From the definition of the right to food as indicated earlier, the right to food is realised when food is available, accessible and sufficient to meet the day-to-day needs and dietary requirements of individuals and households (General Comment 12, para 6).

(1) Food should be available from natural resources, either through the cultivation of land or animal husbandry, and should be available for sale in markets and shops.

(2) Accessibility means food should be accessible both physically and economically. Physical accessibility means people should be able to purchase food. Economic accessibility means food should be affordable.

(3) Adequacy means the food that is available and accessible should contain sufficient nutrients for a healthy diet.

At household level, food security is perceived as ‘access by all household members to sufficient and nutritious food that is safe to eat as a prerequisite for sufficient dietary intake and meeting of food preferences for an active and healthy life’ (Oldewage-Theron et al., 2012: 40). This entails that once these elements are met, individuals and households are considered food secure.

Having regard to the above elements, it is clear that food sovereignty leads to food security and food-secure individuals and households are likely to enjoy the right to food as envisaged in international human rights instruments. Paragraph 2 of the Rome Declaration (1996) provides that the vast majority of those who are undernourished either cannot produce or cannot afford to buy enough food. In other words, they lack adequate access to means of production such as land, water inputs, improved seeds and plants, appropriate technologies and farm credit. A cursory glance at the above provision makes it clear that to effectively realise the right to food, a state should enjoy food sovereignty.

According to Via Campesina, food sovereignty is a precondition to food security. To complement the preceding argument, paragraph 26 of the Rome Declaration (2009) provides that governments take cognisance of the fact that increasing agricultural productivity is the main means to meet the increasing demand for food given the constraints on expanding land and water used for food production. The above provision advocates for food sovereignty in that it places agriculture and related activities at the core of achieving food security. Food sovereignty can only be effectively achieved through increased food production and effective agricultural policy (Wittman, 2011).

Food sovereignty and subsistence agriculture

Food sovereignty aims to ensure the survival and wellbeing of smallholder food producers by allowing them to produce their own food and define their own food and agricultural systems (Beuchelt and Virchow, 2012). This entails that individuals and communities should be empowered through the availability of land, water, seeds and other productive resources to produce their own food. By so doing, food sovereignty promotes the realisation of the right to food. Therefore, to achieve food sovereignty and food security, the right to food should be realised within the broader framework of human rights. Objective 7.5(b) of the Rome Plan of Action (1996) provides that governments should create an enabling environment conducive to achieving food security within the ambit of their long-term food security interventions.

Hence, governments should promulgate policies that empower people to claim their social and economic rights. Paragraph 24 of the Copenhagen Programme of Action provides that people living in poverty and vulnerable groups must be empowered through organisation and participation in all aspects of political, economic and social life, particularly in the planning and implementation of policies that affect them, thus enabling them to become genuine partners in development. The above provision places a duty on states to take a holistic approach that encompasses food sovereignty and food security. This entails that poverty eradication and the achievement of food security should be viewed as a social phenomenon.

Pertinent food-specific policies and human rights instruments: An international law perspective

The importance of food-specific policies is derived from the central aim of the United Nations (UN) Principles and Guidelines on Poverty Interventions of 2006 to assist countries in translating human rights norms, standards and principles into pro-poor policies and strategies. Para 182 of the UN Principles and Guidelines on Poverty Interventions identifies three major elements in respect of agriculture as a food security intervention that governments should consider in giving effect to poverty alleviation policies that states should:

(1) promote policies that bear positively on the underlying determinates of health, especially those that are beneficial for the poor such as supporting agricultural policies that have positive health outcomes for the poor, e.g. food security;

(2) identify measures that address the negative impact of agricultural policies; and

(3) promote income-generating activities.

The above elements are integral in using agricultural strategies to meet the basic need of the right of access to food because they aim to empower the poor to be self-sufficient in producing food. This is in accordance with article 11(2) of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR, 1996) that provides state parties recognise the fundamental right of everyone to be free from hunger, shall take, individually and through international co-operation, the measures, including specific programmes, which are needed to improve methods of production, conservation and distribution of food by making full use of technical and scientific knowledge, by disseminating knowledge of the principles of nutrition including developing or reforming agrarian systems. In simple terms, the above provisions promote food sovereignty.

Pertinent food specific policies and programmes in Africa: A regional perspective

The foremost legal instrument that protects human rights in Africa is the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights of 1986 (the African Charter). Although, the African Charter does not specifically make provision for the right to food, article 22(1) of the African Charter provides that all peoples shall have the right to their economic, social and cultural development with due regard to their freedom and identity and in the equal enjoyment of the common heritage of mankind. However, article 22(2) places a duty on state parties to ensure the exercise of the right to development. Taking into consideration the framing of article 22 of the African Charter, there is a threefold duty in respect of the right to development:

(1) an obligation to abstain from undertaking actions that could violate human rights;

(2) a duty to protect citizens against acts that could violate their human rights; and

(3) a duty to fulfil (mostly economic, social and cultural rights), that is, states by way of legislation must create a framework that enables the realisation of human rights (Kirchmeier, 2006).

Taking into account the duties imposed on governments by the right to development and the attributes of the right to development above, it is clear that because it falls under socioeconomic rights, the right to food is implied in the African Charter. Moreover, according to the Millennium Declaration, the millennium goals are developmental. That is because the millennium goals are coined around human development and share the attributes of international development goals that in turn have poverty alleviation and social development as their core. Because Goals 1 and 2 of the SDGs aim to eradicate extreme poverty, hunger and food insecurity, it suffices to conclude these developmental goals advocate for the effective realisation of the right to food. Therefore, an analogy can be drawn to the effect that the right to development includes a realisation of the right to food as envisaged in article 22 of the African Charter.

Article 66 of the African Charter provides that special protocols or agreements may, if necessary, supplement the provisions of the present charter. Article 15 of the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (the African Women’s Protocol) provides that state parties shall ensure that women have the right to nutritious and adequate food. In this regard, they shall respond appropriately to provide women with access to clean drinking water, sources of domestic fuel, land and the means of producing nutritious food and establish adequate systems of supply and storage to ensure food security. The above provisions clearly indicate that the African Charter protects the right to food.

However, Africa continues to lag in food security efforts often due to poor governance and poor policies. Pro-good governance regional policies and agreements such as the Maputo Declaration, Abuja Declaration on Development of Agribusiness and Agro-Industries in Africa (the Abuja Declaration, 2010) and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, 2003 (CAADP) are indicative of inequalities that exist within member states in so far as social and economic transformation is concerned. The CAADP provides that it aims to alert African governments to the need to adopt policies that will make a difference to Africa’s agricultural sector. In this instance, African governments are encouraged to adopt policies that promote agriculture to be the engine of economic growth. This goal is consistent with the viewpoint advanced in the World Development Report: Agriculture for Development of 2008 (WRD, 2008), which states that agriculture is an effective engine for growth for most agriculture-based countries because it enables them to produce most of their own food. In addition, agriculture plays two crucial roles in agriculture-based countries, in the staple food crop sector, which reduces poverty and enhances household food security, and in the non-staple crop sector, which contributes to the export industry. As a result, agriculture, especially the staple food sector, is significant in advancing the realisation of the right of access to food.

To complement the objectives of the CAADP, African governments have adopted Agenda 2063. This has as its purpose consolidation of the modernisation of African agriculture by eradicating hunger and food insecurity, reducing the imports of food and promoting intra-Africa trade in agriculture and advocates for policies that enable women to access land and agricultural financing. Agenda 2063 aims to ensure extreme poverty is reduced and agriculture is used as a means of a pro-poor growth intervention by increasing poor people’s access to improved agricultural input and the adoption of modern and traditional technologies that support farming. In the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC), state parties adopted the SADC Regional Agricultural Policy of 2014 (the SADC RAP), which recognises the importance of agriculture in improving economic growth, socioeconomic development and poverty reduction through achieving access to sufficient and safe food and promoting small-scale farming. According to paragraph 7 of the SADC RAP, the overall objective of this regional policy is to ensure sustainable agricultural growth and socioeconomic development including reducing social and economic vulnerabilities in the context of food and nutrition security and the changing climatic environment. Therefore, member states are endeavoured to enact national policies relating to sustainable agriculture in line with the SADC Treaty of the Southern African Development Community Rights of 1992 and other relevant regional instruments.

According to Bicaba et al. (2016) in sub-Saharan Africa, there is a high rate of inequality in relation to natural and agriculture resources. Such inequality can only be resolved by the implementation of policies that aim to accelerate growth in an inclusive and sustainable manner specifically within the agriculture sector. Hence, one of the key objectives of the SADC RAP is to enhance sustainable agricultural production, productivity and competitiveness. As a result, the Maputo Declaration provides that agriculture is at the core of reducing food insecurity in Africa and endeavours governments to implement measures that are aimed at increasing food and agricultural production to guarantee sustainable food security and ensure economic prosperity for its people. Paragraph 9 of the Abuja Declaration (2010) provides that governments should involve the most vulnerable sections of society, the physically challenged and youths to ensure their special needs to participate in economic activities are embraced and supported in agricultural development interventions and investment programmes. These regional instruments highlight the crucial role that agricultural transformation plays in the fight against impoverishment and food insecurity.

Therefore, in adopting such agreements, member states are trying to bridge the gap caused by poor governance, with the expectation that consensual commitments between member states will persuade individual state parties to promote and fulfil their obligations in relation to poverty eradication. One region that could benefit from such policies is sub-Saharan Africa including South Africa, which still bears the brunt of being the most food insecure region in Africa (State of Food Insecurity, 2014). Policies that aim to promote agricultural transformation are vital because the root cause of food insecurity in developing countries is the inability of people to gain access to food due to poverty. To this end, subsistence agriculture as a food security intervention has the propensity to promote the consumption of micronutrient-rich foods and farmer-driven agriculture (Headey, 2013).

This entails that SADC governments recognise the importance of food sovereignty in achieving food security. According to the discussions at the Nyeleni Forum on Food Sovereignty, food sovereignty prioritises local and national economies and markets and empowers peasant and family farmer-driven agriculture, artisanal-fishing, pastoralist-led grazing and food production, distribution and consumption based on environmental, social and economic sustainability (Declaration of the Forum for Food Sovereignty, Nyéléni, 2007). Hence, the approach of SADC governments to give priority to agriculture as a means of sustaining food production is not misplaced.

However, despite the Africa governments’ efforts to ensure food is available and accessible to all, it is of necessity that the right of access to food be explicitly included in the Africa Charter. The basis for this argument is trite because African governments have since adopted various instruments aimed at reducing food insecurity such as Agenda 2063, the Maputo Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security in Africa of 2003 (the Maputo Declaration), CAADP, 2003 and the Declaration on Poverty Eradication and Sustainable Development of 2008 (Mauritius Declaration). These regional instruments also complement international instruments such as the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural rights (ICESCR), Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda) that explicitly entrench the right to food. Moreover, these instruments afford the right to food without any distinction based on sex or gender as indicative the African Women’s Protocol. Such distinction although aimed at ensuring women are given preference in the fight against poverty due to past inequalities, it is unacceptable to the extent that poverty affects everyone, including male-headed households (Isubikalu, 2007: 80–84; Mwaniki, 2006). For the reasons advanced above, it is recommended that future revisions of the African Charter be amended to include an explicit provision that protects the right of access to food for all Africans.

Pertinent food-specific policies and programmes in South Africa

Paragraph 9 of the 2030 Agenda provides that to succeed in achieving the SDGs, good governance and an enabling environment are essential for sustainable development, including sustained and inclusive economic growth, social development, environmental protection and the eradication of poverty and hunger. Furthermore, article 25(1) of the UDHR provides that every person has a right to a standard of living adequate for their health and that of their family, including the right to food. To this end, to achieve adequate food security, state parties and governments are encouraged to undertake activities aimed at the promotion of food self-sufficiency within the context of sustainable agriculture. Hence, there is a need to use agricultural production as a measure of attaining basic food security by promoting the production of micronutrient-rich foods in the context of small farms. According to Anderson and Bellows (2012), food sovereignty stresses the importance of local food security through local production than for income purposes. As a result, the South African government has enacted policies aimed at revamping and promoting subsistence agriculture as a livelihood resource for rural households.

The Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (2009)

As shown above, the main aim of the RDP was to meet the basic needs of all citizens. However, to achieve this objective, legislative measures were to be put in place to realise a variety of basic needs including land reform (RDP, 1994: 2.2.5). In this instance, the Comprehensive Rural Development Programme (CRDP; 2009) and MTSF 2009–2014 and 2014–2019 were among the most important policies aimed at agrarian and land reform. Legislative frameworks in land reform are important for a variety of reasons, but those that have a direct impact on the realisation of the right of access to food are that rural dwellers rely on land for survival and hence access to productive land is vital for such households to produce food and that land is central to rural development to provide for security of tenure (RDP, 1994:2.4.1–2.4.2). Access to land by households presents a formidable step towards sustainable long-term food security interventions such as subsistence farming. This would lead to productive and sustainable rural areas in terms of land tenure and land availability.

In turn, access to land would promote small-scale agriculture, which is a major investment in rural development. Such an investment would lead to increased employment opportunities and provide for the immediate local market and local agro-industry, thereby promoting local economic development in rural areas (Delius and Schirmer, 2001). By so doing, the objectives of the CRDP of agrarian transformation, rural development and land reform would easily be achieved. These objectives are at the heart of sustainable rural areas because households there rely on land to produce their own food.

In the long term, the purpose of agrarian reform is that the produce of smallholding farmers can find its way to the local agricultural markets. According to Via Campesina, peasant family members, especially women, must have access to productive land, credit, technology markets and extension services. To supplement the above argument, Lahiff and Cousins (2005:129) state that in South Africa, the reform of agricultural markets requires the restructuring of markets to create opportunities for new entrants operating on a smaller scale and serving local markets and offer a degree of price stability for producers especially with regard to staple food crops.

This calls for the government to ensure measures are in place that give rural households access to land and make sure the land is effectively utilised to sustain rural dwellers through subsistence farming. Accordingly, this can be done through strengthening sustainable rural livelihoods. In this instance, sustainable rural livelihoods encompass having adequate stocks and flows of food and cash to meet basic needs (Chambers and Conway, 1991). Ownership of land, access to land, the technical know-how of farming and improved access to basic services can qualify as sustainable livelihoods. Sustainable livelihoods are vital in food security because rural households depend on land as an indispensable asset when carrying out agricultural activities. The notion of sustainable livelihoods recognises that rural households have at their disposal a variety of assets (such as livestock) and natural resources (such as land) that can be used to enhance food security. The notion of sustainable livelihoods is reflected in United Nations Conference on Human Settlements of 1996 (Habitat II), which places sustainable agriculture and improved agricultural technologies at the centre of maintaining and developing sustainable rural settlements. Such an obligation is consonant with principle 3 of the Rome Declaration (2009), which views rural development as an integral component of overcoming food insecurity and improving access to food through implementing effective evidence-based policies that ensure access to food, address malnutrition and enable smallholders to access technologies.

This objective is supported by Jayne, Yamano and Weber et al. (2003), who argue that the model of structural transformation indicates that in countries where 70–80% of the rural population derive their income from agriculture, poverty reduction depends on agricultural productivity growth. The model of structural transformation refers to the reallocation of economic activity across the broad sectors of agriculture, manufacturing and services. In agriculture, structural transformation entails an economic development process where agriculture through higher productivity provides food, labour and savings to individuals and households (Timmer and Akkus, 2008). According to Cervantes-Godoy and Dewbre (2010), agricultural income growth is more effective in reducing poverty than growth in other sectors because (a) the incidence of poverty tends to be higher in agricultural and rural settlements and (b) the most poverty-stricken populations live in rural areas and depend on agriculture for a living. Paragraph 11 of the Declaration of the International Conference on Agrarian Reform and Rural Development of 2006 (ICARRD, 2006) provides that the international community takes cognisance of the need to use agricultural production as a means of contributing to food security and the eradication of poverty.

This entails that governments should enact policies that not only aim to alleviate poverty but also promote rural development. In terms of paragraph 14.2 of United Nations Conference on Environment and Development of 1992 (Agenda 21), the main objective of sustainable agriculture and rural development is to increase food production in a sustainable way and enhance food security. Therefore, sustainable agriculture not only provides a viable food security intervention but also promotes food sovereignty. This is because food sovereignty stresses the need to promote locally orientated small-scale agriculture production for consumption rather than for trade (Ziegler, 2008).

The Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Strategy (2000) and the Integrated Food Security Strategy for South Africa (2002)

In terms of paragraph 77, the objective of the ISRDS is to transform rural South Africa into an economically viable and socially stable and harmonious sector that makes a significant contribution to the nation’s GDP. In other words, the ISRDS’s objective is to transform rural areas into sustainable economic hubs. The purpose of the ISRDS is to enable rural dwellers to sustain themselves through local investments in the form of earnings or agricultural produce (Olivier et al., 2010). Therefore, the ISRDS is premised on the notion of sustainable livelihoods. This notion requires the government to put in place programmes aimed at providing integrated support activities to improve the sustainability of livelihoods among poor and vulnerable groups by strengthening the resilience of their coping and adaptive interventions (Krantz, 2001).

This entails such measures should enable households to not only alleviate immediate poverty and meet food security needs but also support households to earn their own living through sustainable programmes as proposed in the CRDP and MTSF above. This means that a programme that aims to reduce food insecurity by catering for medium- to long-term food security interventions should take into account ancillary factors that have the potential to limit its effectiveness. In this instance, such a programme should contain at least the following three key elements as listed in the ISRDS: facilitation of rural development, sustaining the dynamic growth of rural areas and creating an integrated programme to sustain rural development.

These key elements are vital in implementing subsistence farming as a food security intervention because such interventions are dependent on land availability. Access to arable land in subsistence farming is an important factor because it ensures food access for the rural poor (Cruz, 2010). Hence, it is important to consider the impact of land reform legislation on the right of access to food within the context of the legislative measures that are aimed at realising the right of access to food. This entails that section 27(2) of the Constitution of South Africa should be read with the provisions of section 25(5), which provides that the state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to foster conditions that enable citizens to gain access to land on an equitable basis. According to Guideline 2.5 of the FAO Voluntary Guidelines to Support the Progressive Realization of the Right to Adequate Food in the Context of National Food Security of 2004 (FAO Voluntary Guidelines), governments should pursue inclusive, non-discriminatory and sound economic, agriculture and land-reform policies that allow, among other things, farmers and food producers including women to earn a fair return from their labour, capital and management and encourage conservation and sustainable management of natural resources. This guideline indicates the importance of subsistence agriculture in promoting general household food security. This entails that the government should create a viable coherent programme aimed at alleviating poverty.

In South Africa, the Integrated Food Security Strategy for South Africa (IFSS) (2002) is one such legislative framework that aims to empower subsistence farmers. The IFSS’s prominent goal was to eradicate hunger, malnutrition and food insecurity over 2015. To ensure this, the objectives of the IFSS include increasing household food production and trading, improving income-generation and job-creation opportunities, improving nutrition and food safety and increasing safety nets and food emergency management systems. To discharge the above objectives, the IFSS adopts a developmental approach to poverty alleviation. This entails that the realisation of the right of access to sufficient food will be based on both interceptive and empowerment interventions. In other words, where households are capable of accessing production resources on their own, intervention will be made available to support access to such production resources (empowerment). In contrast, in severe cases where households are unable to access sufficient food, shorter medium-term relief measures will be made available (intervention).

This developmental approach proposed by the IFSS is consistent with the commitments and goals of international instruments such as the Copenhagen Declaration on Social Development and Programme of Action of the World Summit for Social Development (Copenhagen Programme of Action). Such an approach not only looks at the needs of people living in poverty but also recognises that they have entitlements to basic services such as access to food. To this end the two-pronged approach of the IFSS is important as one of the IFSS’s objectives is to overcome rural food insecurity. By so doing, the government will not only empower households to achieve sustainable access to food but also achieve food sovereignty by enabling households to produce food that meets their individual dietary needs and is culturally acceptable for consumption. Accordingly, the IFSS complements several regional instruments such as the CAADP, SADC RAP and Maputo Declaration. The aim of these regional policies is to promote agricultural transformation as a pathway of reducing poverty and hunger in rural communities.

NDP 2030 and the Agricultural Policy Action Plan 2015–2019 (2014)

According to the Integrated Growth and Development Plan (2012), the agriculture sector in South Africa plays a vital role in promoting national food safety and security within the context of sustainable agriculture. To this end, agriculture promotes rural economic growth especially considering that South Africa has a vast number of small-scale and subsistence farmers specifically in former homelands. Hence, the government is focusing on enacting policies and programmes that aim to provide both legislative and technical support to small-scale and subsistence farmers. This stance is further elaborated in the 2015–16 to 2019–2020 Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (DAFF, 2015/16 to 2019/20) Strategic Plan, which provides that one of the strategic goals of the DAFF is to provide an enabling environment for food security and sustainable agrarian transformation.

This enabling environment requires the establishment of self-sustainable local food systems consonant with the elements of the right to food as envisaged in international law (Drimie and McLachlan 2013). The objectives of the NDP 2030 (2012) include:

(a) the need to realise a food trade surplus, with one-third being produced by small-scale farmers or households; and

(b) ensuring household food and nutrition security.

Chapter 6 of the NDP outlines an integrated strategy that aims to revamp the rural economy through agriculture, more specifically irrigated agriculture and dry land production (NDP, 2012:218). In achieving this goal, the focus will be on subsistence and small-scale farmers. It is recommended that support is provided in the form of linking farmers to markets to enable them to sell their produce, training extension officers to respond to the needs of small-scale farmers and ensuring that extension services are available to such farmers (NDP, 2012:225–226). To this end, chapter 7 of the Agricultural Policy Action Plan introduces key interventions that aim to provide support for subsistence and small-scale farmers. These interventions include (a) food production increase through land capability, mechanisation support services and production inputs and infrastructure; (b) provision of research and innovation through investments in human capital, basic research and indigenous knowledge systems; and (c) environmental sustainability measures such as the adoption of climate-resilient farming strategies. Therefore, it is clear that subsistence agriculture as a food security intervention is influenced by various factors that require both the enactment of policies and the commitment to implement those policies.

Comprehensive Agriculture Support Programme (2004) and Ilima/Letsema programme

The Comprehensive Agriculture Support Programme (CASP) was implemented in 2004, with the aim of addressing the challenges in the agricultural sector of South Africa. This programme intends to address, among other things, the need to support household and subsistence food producers through the provision of agriculture starter packs (Comprehensive Agriculture Support Programme, 2004: 2.3). The main objective of the CASP is to make provision for agricultural support to targeted beneficiaries of the land reform and agrarian reform programme. The importance of this objective derives from the fact that although, subsistence farming plays a marginal role in reducing overall poverty, it is vital in supplementing a household’s food supply. Hence, one of the objectives of the MTSF 2009–2014 was to ensure that rural households should be able satisfy 60% of their food requirements from own production.

The 2008 review of agricultural policies conducted by Tregurtha and Vink (2008) indicates that rural households with access to land had at some stage relied on farming for income, in response to a livelihood shock. Moreover, the WRD of 2000–2001 indicates there is a predominance of small-scale farming in developing countries. As a result, this calls for governments to ensure that natural resources such as water and land that are crucial in guaranteeing that small-scale farming is productive are made available. To this end, the National Policy on Food and Nutrition Security for the Republic of South Africa (2013) (the Food Security Policy) provides that South Africa has as one of its food challenges the need to use productive land for food production due to lack of finance, equipment and water amongst others.

This entails that interventions should be taken to ensure the agricultural sector, including household and subsistence producers, have access to the natural resources that will enable their farming to be profitable. This is consistent with paragraph 3 of the Food Security Policy’s goal, which is to ensure the availability, accessibility and affordability of safe and nutritious food at national and household levels. As a result, this policy gives effect to section 27(1)(b) of the Constitution of South Africa and enables the state to fulfil its obligation in terms of section 27(2) of the Constitution of South Africa. Therefore, the objective of CASP is realised through the Food Security Policy’s strategic mandate and approach that require investments in agriculture towards local economic development especially in rural areas, not only through subsidising inputs and supporting services for increased food production but also improved market participation for emerging small-scale farmers.

The aim of the Letsema programme is to assist small-scale farmers and household producers to increase their food production and to make productive use of available land, especially fallow land (Department of Agriculture; 2008–2009). As a result, agricultural starter packs consisting of vegetable seedlings, fruit seedlings, fruit trees and livestock among other things have been distributed to identified beneficiaries since the inception of this programme. In terms of the CASP Grant Report of 2018–2019, R1.8 billion was allocated for the year 2018–2019, R1.9 billion for 2019–2020 and R2 billion for 2020–2021. Among other things, the aim of this grant is:

(a) at most 20% of project allocation to support Fetsa Tlala initiatives;

(b) at most 50% of project allocation to support grain, livestock and horticultural production areas;

(c) at least 20% of which should be focused on black commercial farmers in partnership with the relevant commodity organisation; and

(d) at least 30% of which should be focused on commercialisation of smallholder farmers.

According to the 2014–2015 CASP and Ilima/Letsema Annual Report, R1,860,608 was allocated for CASP projects and R460,625 was allocated for the Ilima/Letsema project at 31 March 2015. In 2008–2009 R534,918 million was allocated to CASP and R96 million for Ilima/Letsema (2008/2009 CASP and Ilima/Letsema Annual Report: 27). A comparison between the 2008–2009 Annual Report, 2014–2015 Annual Report and the 2018–2019 CASP Report indicates the government has invested greatly in the agriculture sector, especially subsistence farming. The 2018–2019 CASP Report’s provision for 30% of the grant for the commercialisation of smallholder farmers indicates the importance of agricultural programmes (including the CASP and Ilima/Letsema programmes) in reducing hunger and meeting the SDG’s Goals 1 and 2 and in ensuring that agriculture becomes a viable economic pathway for farming communities.

However, numerous authors observe that the impact of such programmes in the long term is unknown. Hendriks (2014:7) argues that most agricultural programmes on household food security appear unsustainable because they offer one-off assistance and lack comprehensive capacity building to equip farmers with the requisite skills to operate in commercial markets. This sentiment is shared by Sikwela and Masunje (2013), who observe that poor implementation has seen the CASP programme fail to reach the majority of the intended beneficiaries and, where it does, it is available as a single service. This defeats the purpose of such programmes and plunges small-scale producers further into poverty and food insecurity (Sikwela and Mushunje, 2013). Furthermore, Mngqawa, Mangena-Netshikweta and Katerere (2016: 60) state that if programmes such as CASP can be implemented properly, much can be achieved in increasing household food production among subsistence farmers especially by equipping them with management skills of their harvest from the field to storage.

Conclusion

This paper set out to reveal the importance of human development and food sovereignty in fostering conditions that enable rural households to enhance their food security capabilities, with specific reference to subsistence agriculture as a food security intervention at a household level and its efficacy in improving access to food. It was shown that human development plays a critical role in promoting the progressive realisation of the right of access to food within the broader framework of human rights. This entails that for food security strategies to be efficient, they should be implemented within the ambit of other socioeconomic development programmes. It was further shown from the analysis and discussion in other literature and international, regional and national policies that subsistence agriculture is viewed as the most viable and efficient pathway to reduce household food insecurity in rural households. Further, subsistence agriculture presents the most viable strategy in ensuring that households enjoy the right to food as entrenched in regional and international instruments. The reason being the right to food can only be realised when food is available both in the right quality and quantity and is accessible to individuals and households.

As a result, there is a need for the government to conduct a proper review of its policies and programmes to ensure the set targets for agricultural growth for 2019 and 2030 are achievable. Two areas that need constant review concern the provision of extension services and land reform. From the above discussion, it is clear that unless the factors that negatively affect subsistence farming are addressed, the right of access to sufficient food will remain out of reach for the rural poor. This entails that the requirements entrenched in section 27(2) of the Constitution of South Africa will not be efficiently fulfilled in accordance to South Africa’s regional and international commitments and obligations. Consequently, this will defeat the very aim of agrarian reform, namely achieving food sovereignty. This in turn will lead to individuals and households becoming food insecure and deprived of the enjoyment of accessing food and will not comply with the international standards requiring that food should be culturally acceptable and of adequate nutritional value.

Footnotes

Funding

The author received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Grace Mbajiorgu

Author biography

Grace Mbajiorgu holds an LLM degree from the University of Limpopo, South Africa, School of Law. She is currently completing her LLD degree with the North-West University, focusing on social protection and subsistence agriculture as food security interventions for rural households in South Africa. Her research interests include human rights law, specifically socioeconomic rights and indigenous law.

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