Your views on our news
| Ashiya Osman-Absool Satar | Why the growing concerns over climate change? The increase in temperature and decreased precipitation levels in water-dependent agricultural lands, as a result of climate change, causes a decline in crop production, which means less food is produced to feed Africa’s growing population. Africa is already riddled with poverty and a decline in crop production will exacerbate the situation. The use of heavy-machinery in the ever-burgeoning livestock farming sector coupled with the use of arable land to produce livestock feed also places a greater demand on the environment.
How is climate change related to food security? Global warming negatively affects food production and agricultural systems. Decreased rainfall and overused land increases land aridity. If land becomes less cultivatable, farmers face the challenge of meeting the mounting demand for food in Africa. Food shortages are bound to surge if this phenomenon is not reversed. Sources consulted
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Simangele Mahlangu
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Simangele Mahlangu, Accounts Manager, Imperial Online, thinks that the topic on climate change and food security is enormous, and refers to the Climate Change and Food Security Framework Document, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome, 2008, as a source of information. The document indicates that there are too many arguments from international professionals and academics with some saying that climate change is not a critical determinant of food security but that the economy is. It is a chain reaction.The four dimensions of food security are availability, accessibility, utilisation and food systems stability. Over the years, climate change has had a huge impact on adaptation (reducing and responding to risks posed to people and livelihood). The adverse effects of climate change have worn the adaptation margins so thin that migration became the only option to many affected people and businesses (and this will continue to grow, shifting the geographic distribution of risk and vulnerability).
Agricultural costs in terms of food security are in protection of existing livelihood, change of livelihood strategies, diversifying sources of income, migration, disruptions and declines in global and local food supplies, affecting cross border imports and exports as well as sustainable livestock management. The consequences are that supply chains are disrupted, market prices increase, assets and livelihood opportunities are lost, purchasing power falls, human health is endangered, and there are forced changes in food consumption patterns and forced changes in food preparation practices. Unspoken technicalities are that gas emissions and carbon footprints are slowly altering the formation and content of rain, creating a more ‘unpure’ form of precipitation. These harmful rain contents have a negative effect on the soil, the grazing land and the agriculture. In essence, an apple changes its form every year and might not exist in its current state in 20 years to come. |
| Thelma Moeng, Northern Cape | This is just additional, as we all know and see the climate changing every day. To secure food, is when we stand up and think how we can do it for our people. We can establish food gardens in our schools, clinics and churches where we can plant vegetables such as potatoes, spinach, onions and carrots. We can also plant fruits such as peaches, oranges, grapes and many more. |
Tlhone Ralph Raphasha 
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Tlhone Ralph Raphasha blames modernisation and capitalism for food insecurities caused by climate change. For the global village to be able to win the war against climate change and food security, we have to initiate a change in the way we make sense of our realities. We have to migrate from a complicated and complex manner of doing things and go back to our simple ways.We have abandoned our simple ways of co-existence with nature. Our value system has drifted from that of respecting the entire creation to that of being masters of the creation – we consume as we wish.
When I was growing up, in a rural village of Tlhakadiwa (Transacty) near Bela Bela (Warmbaths), villagers practiced farming. People who had capacity would help those without to develop themselves. Those people would end up as low scale farmers, either planting crops or farming livestock. Possible resolutions: people should consume their own cultural food (eg food gardens); respect for the natural surrounding should be pivotal; consumption should be as one needs and not wants; migrate from adopting foreign ways of doing things; abandon the centralisation of economic powers; and value local culture. |
Petrus Ravele 
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Petrus Ravele says that all he knows about the climate change is a significant and lasting change in the statistical distribution of weather patterns. It is caused by factors that include oceanic processes such as oceanic circulation, volcanic eruptions (which are caused by high pressure systems below the sea level) and the effects of this cause global warming. Good environment helps countries to become more productive in terms of plantation and gives people an opportunity to have social and economic access to sufficient food. |
Lynn Mashinyana
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Climate change is a major threat to sustainable food security as temperatures and precipitation patterns are changing more frequently. As a result, producing enough food to feed a growing population is becoming more challenging. Everyone in agriculture must adapt quickly in order to ensure food security, accessibility and availability. The emphasis is put on “decisive policy action if we are to preserve the planet’s capacity to produce enough food in future” (Beddington). Factors that need to be considered and researched on in order to assure food security and availability are as follows: strengthen agriculture research; pests and diseases; soil ecosystems; ruminant agriculture; irrigation structuring and efficiency; grain quality; land use; international trade; human capital development; and an increase in availability of spatial data. Sources consulted:
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| Marilyn Aitken | Marilyn Aitken of the Women’s Leadership and Training Programme based in KZN says that she wonders how many of you were at COP 17. During the Global Day of Action against Climate Change, I was walking with girls and Ugandan and Tanzanian women. They found a large cardboard box to pick up the plastic my fellow SA marchers were throwing onto the street. I felt very ashamed that South Africans still do not understand the connection between climate change and the garbage they produce, the electricity they use, the food they eat, the homes they build, their professions and the offices they work in, and the speed at which they drive their cars. Unisa graduates have the skills to bring about a radical change in the way Southern Africans think and behave. As a graduate, I am doing my bit by helping girls and young women to see the connections and to act on what they see. Educated girls and young women now appreciate the soil and the wider environment that sustains life. Some have chosen careers related to agriculture and a sustainable earth. Human beings as a species are facing extinction unless the global temperature rise can be kept to below 2 degrees by 2020. Climate change (CC) is warning us that large sections of the world’s population, especially in Africa are critically endangered. ‘Business as Usual’ during the coming decade will result in a disastrous 3-4 degree rise globally, but in Africa there will be a 5-6 degree rise within the next 20 years. Africa experiences higher temperatures than other continents because of its huge land mass, the large area crossed by the hot equator, the long distances from the cooling influence of the Polar Regions, and the rising levels of warm ocean water as the polar ice sheets melt. Already, farms are disappearing into the sea in parts of West Africa.
Unisa graduates face the challenge of becoming involved in crucial work to mitigate and adapt to climate change. These are a few examples of what is needed: accessing funds from the Green Climate Fund (GCF) for Green Technology and Renewable Energy; promoting agro-ecology and the use of indigenous heirloom seeds that are adapted to the climatic conditions, marketing healthy organic food to cut down on the use of fossil fuels in fertiliser, pesticides and herbicides. |
Please note that the opinions expressed in this article are the opinions of the writers and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the University of South Africa.
