By Julian Pallium, President and CEO of Foskor
When the Minister of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, John Steenhuisen, released the National Food and Nutrition Security Survey on 9 October, the focus was very much on how to achieve sustainable food security for all. While South Africa is relatively food secure as a country, the survey highlighted the fact that, at household level, many of the country’s people struggle with access to food.
According to Statistics SA (Stats SA), around 80% of households report having adequate access to food, which places South Africa around the midway point on the Global Food Security Index. However, 15% of households (2.6 million) report having inadequate access to food and a further 6% (1.1 million) report having severely inadequate access to food.
There are many structural and economic reasons for this, but the question we need to ask ourselves is simple: What do we need to do in order to alleviate the situation as quickly and effectively as possible?
To put this challenge into context, South Africa is one of 106 countries worldwide that recognise the right to adequate food and clean water as a basic human right. Further, when the member states of the United Nations – including South Africa – adopted the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development in 2015, they defined the elimination of poverty and hunger as the top two Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The fulfilment of these goals depends on food security, better nutrition, sustainable agriculture and access to meaningful work. This provides us with clear areas of focus; what we need are defined ways in which to realise the full potential in each of these areas.
The three-pronged approach
The burning question we therefore need to answer is how do we get more food of better quality onto more tables?
It goes without saying that a thriving and productive commercial agricultural sector is vital. At Foskor, it is our mission to be an enabler of agricultural production, both in South Africa and around the world. At home, we are the leading supplier of phosphate-based fertilisers to the agricultural sector and we export our products to international markets as diverse as the SADC countries, the DRC, Brazil, India, France, Norway and Japan. Supporting efficient food production at scale by providing access to seed, fertilisers and equipment has to be the first – and primary – prong to the food security solution.
Secondly, we need to develop knowledge, skills and capacity within the agricultural and related sectors. This is necessary not only to improve productivity and support economic growth but because these sectors are significant employers. Agriculture alone employs approximately 5% of the working population and there is no doubt that access to decent, reliable work alleviates poverty and hunger for employees, their families and communities alike.
The need to develop skills in these sectors is urgent and requires coordinated cooperation between the public and private sectors.
For a start, skills development levies enable government to fund essential education and training programmes, which are aimed at filling the gap for skilled farmers, farm managers, technicians and agronomists. But private sector programmes that harness the power of e-learning to provide industry-relevant and accredited agricultural education have an equally important role to play, especially at community level.
Partnerships like the one Foskor has with AgriColleges International are taking agricultural education into the heart of communities with programmes that are designed to empower residents through both education and development initiatives. Providing access via students’ smartphones, tablets or PCs, AgriColleges International offers AgriSETA-accredited courses in everything from an introduction to agribusiness to the cultivation of individual crops, pig farming and chicken farming. The organisation also offers national certificates (NFQ4 level) in General Agriculture, Plant Production, Animal Production and Cannabis and Hemp Production.
The courses on offer are therefore suitable for individuals who would like to build a career in agriculture as well as for entrepreneurs and community organisations.
This brings us to what are important but often-neglected contributors to food security – and the third prong of an integrated approach to the issue – namely home and community gardens. With access to food being affected by issues as diverse as poverty, unemployment, high food prices and climate change, household participation in food production can be – and is – a lifeline for many. At present, only 14% of households are involved in any kind of food production, but this is changing.
Community organisations and NPOs around the country are engaged in helping communities to establish food gardens, advocating for sustainable growing practices and fostering economic empowerment. This is enabling them to feed themselves sustainably and even to make a living by creating a market for locally grown produce.

Feed the soil, feed the nation
To summarise, the three-pronged approach to universal food security is to support and develop commercial agriculture and related sectors, to provide opportunities to develop agricultural skills at all levels, and to promote widespread participation in home and community food gardening.
Everyone has a role to play in making this happen and the responsibility for food sustainability lies with all of us. And at the heart of it all is Foskor’s most dearly held value: feed the soil and you feed the nation.
For further information, visit www.foskor.co.za.