Problemática

Early in 2018 global attention was turned to Cape Town as the city came perilously close to running out of water. The drought raised a series of important food security questions. One of the key contestations was the relative allocation of water to urban residents and rural agriculture, particularly in the context of the dominant ex- port orientation of the region’s agriculture. This raised questions about the orientation of the food system as a whole. The city’s relatively limited urban agriculture production was put under considerable pressure, and the drought was a compounding factor in the suspending of the city’s largest community-supported agriculture project. The drought has provided an opportun- ity to consider vulnerabilities across the whole food system and their intersection with other critical urban functions; the drought has affected local, but not national availability. Chapter 8 of this volume reports on the campaign ‘Resistance is fertile’ in the Philippi Horticultural Area of the Cape Flats, where dispossessed traditional small- holder farmers of the Philippi Horticultural As- sociation (PHA) are fighting against developers and the Cape Town Municipality.

Economic access is determined by both prices and income – the drought has proven abil- ity to disrupt both. Had Cape Town reached Day Zero (the day when city taps were to be switched off) there would have been mass retrenchments which would have fundamentally impacted food access. Additionally, the city is home to substan- tial food processing, and the forced shut down of these businesses would have reduced access sig- nificantly. Furthermore, food utilization would have been severely impacted as households would be unable to prepare and consume food safely. This would have shaped dietary practice and health. The drought in Cape Town should have focused policy makers’ minds at national, provincial and local scales on building food system resilience through supported diversified,

robust food systems, extending beyond consider- ing just availability and a simplistic framing of accessibility.

Conclusion

Climate change is a new reality to be factored in: we will experience weather shocks and price shocks, and this will decrease access to food for vulnerable households. Training, especially for mothers and for women from rural areas, helped to decrease food insecurity in Ghana (where the government doubled spending on agricultural education, with rural women as the main target beneficiary group).

Food security, food sovereignty and organic farming can go together as the core of interven- tions which should equip rural women and men,

as well as motivating and supporting vulnerable urban households, to produce nutritious and culturally appropriate food locally. Nutrition education and programmes to make unrefined, organically produced food more widely avail- able, can play an important role.

Urban agriculture, and agroecology in general, can mitigate the effects of drought on household food security, and contribute to nourishing the next generation of young South Africans. This is essential if we are serious about addressing the stunting of our children’s bodies and the accompanying slowing of mental de- velopment. Our children need to be given the opportunity to devlop to their full potential. Child grants have made the financial resources available; an organic food sovereignty move- ment will educate parents to use these resources productively.

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100 (ed. R. Auerbach)

Abstract

The theory of participatory action research recommends finding tools for community participation in analysis of the situation and development of community programmes. Two case studies, from KwaZulu-Natal and from Philippi near Cape Town, are examined. Participatory rural appraisal (PRA) techniques include using: (i) mul- tiple historical perspectives to construct a community timeline; (ii) SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) analysis; (iii) issue identification by interest groups; (iv) community voting techniques; (v) transect walks where the actual land is visited and important features are noted and discussed; and (vi) participatory mapping, where such transect walks are converted into rough maps made on a concrete slab or a small piece of land with chalks and various props to represent land features. Such a map can then be ‘interviewed’ by participants to draw out further understanding of the spatial dynamics. Visioning exercises, Venn diagrams of stakeholder relation- ships, and analysis of problems and solutions using ‘problem’ and ‘solutions’ trees can then be used to clarify problems and draw out solutions. Community participants and young researchers found these techniques useful in developing understanding of community dynamics and clarifying priorities.

Appraisal (PRA) to Support Organic Food