South Africa’s agriculture sector is at a significant crossroads, facing numerous challenges and increasing limitations, including depleted soils and overextracted and polluted water reserves, highlights World Wide Fund for Nature South Africa’s (WWF-SA) 2015 Farming Facts and Futures report: ‘Reconnecting South Africa’s food systems to its ecosystems’.

The report was launched on Thursday in partnership with Nedbank, as a supporting tool to those in agriculture who were aware of the changing context of the industry and doing what was necessary to shift towards a resilient future.

The challenges faced by the industry, which had been identified by government in the National Development Plan as a key job driver to shrink the divide between the rich and poor, needed to be resolved concurrently, the report said, which also highlighted the challenges of climate change, volatility in international oil prices, rising local input costs, uncertainty about land reform and an unpredictable power supply.

WWF-SA Sustainable Agriculture senior manager Inge Kotze, a coauthor of the report, noted that much of the available agricultural statistics were still largely outdated, with little consensus on up-to-date, accurate and consistent data, particularly with regard to the number of growers – commercial and small-scale household farming – and land-holdings.

“This highlights the need and urgency for increased investment and research in this sector to support and inform well-directed and effective policy decisions and implementation,” she advised.

In terms of water, two-thirds of all surface water in South Africa was being used by irrigated agriculture, with an additional 150 000 ha of irrigated agriculture expected by 2030. Only 1% of South Africa had the right climate and soil combinations for rain-fed crops.

With regard to land and soil, 3% of South Africa’s soils were truly fertile, while 69% of the country’s land surface was good for grazing and 13% good for cultivation. Further poor soil management was resulting in acidification and salinisation, with 25% of South Africa’s soils susceptible to wind erosion, explained Kotze.

In the context of energy, the country’s agriculture sector was deeply dependent on fossil fuels, such as oil and diesel, as well as agrochemicals and electricity, driving economic and physical insecurity, while the development of alternative energy solutions – biofuels and biotechnology – were driving competition for land and water.

Compounding the situation was the increasing competition across sectors for these resources. “South Africa’s economic growth and development will increasingly be based on trade-offs between mining, urban, industrial, energy and agriculture for access to a limited and constrained resource base,” the report noted.

Meanwhile, rising wealth, urbanisation and a fast-growing middle class have changed South Africa’s consumption patterns, with more South Africans eating greater amounts of processed and high-protein foods – especially meat and dairy products – and empty calorie high-sugar diets. “These foods are more land and water-intensive than fruit, vegetable and grain crops, and, therefore, place further pressure on the country’s already stressed existing resources.”

The report highlighted that future agricultural growth in South Africa was dependent on improving and sustaining the optimal productivity and yield of the country’s food footprint through improving production practices, reducing food waste and increasing resource efficiency.

The improvement of spatial land-use planning and integrated resource mapping was also required, along with better compliance with regulations and policies, investment in research and development, technology and knowledge transfer, skills development through extension services and direct investment in agriculture.

The report also emphasised that although South Africa was considered a food secure State nationally, according to a recent study by Oxfam, highlighting the level of household food insecurity and malnutrition, the country produces enough calories to feed its population but one in four people currently suffered hunger regularly.

Moreover, 30% to 40% of food was also wasted at every stage of the food chain. Nine-million tonnes of food was wasted every year, equating to enough energy to power Johannesburg for 20 years and enough water to fill 600 000 Olympic-size swimming pools.

It was estimated that only 20% of South Africa’s farms supply 80% of the food in the formal retail chain, while the Minister of Economic Development said commercial farmers – of which there are 38 000 – accounted for 95% of the country’s locally produced food.

“Although accurate data is slim, this suggests that the remaining 5% of food is produced by the 220 000 emerging farmers and two-million subsistence farmers in the country,” cited the Farming Facts and Futures report.

Nonetheless, uncertainty remains, with the land reform policy threatening to further destabilise the farming sector through the proposed Land Reform Bill of 2015.  Under the Bill, the amount of land a farmer owned would be capped at 12 000 ha, with a calculation by AgriSA in 2015 estimating that more than 12 000 farms in South Africa exceeded this ceiling.

“The sector needs to be restructured in a way that allows for the redistribution of land and creates some fairness in the access to and ownership of resources,” said WWF-SA. It stated that this needed to be done in a manner that did not erode the food outputs of the country’s farmers as, if the limited land available fell out of large-scale production, it could have a serious impact on South Africa’s food security and food production self-sufficiency.

“The challenges of feeding South Africa’s growing population in a climate-altered, resource constrained future are enormous. Yet we do not have to be victims of an inevitable crisis,” stated the report, pointing out that individual actions added up.

WWF-SA stressed that government needed to implement transparent decision-making based on integrated land use and resource planning and management. “This includes the need for explicit mapping of the spatial resource trade-offs and opportunities created by competing needs for food, water and energy from a limited resource base,” the report stated, also calling for strengthened extension support services, research and technology transfer and greatly improved monitoring and enforcement of resource uses.

Farmers or producers could make a difference by developing a spatial farm and farm management plan that included the identification of natural and agricultural resources, participating in industry good practice initiatives focused on better production practices and responsible farming, sharing knowledge and participating in collaborative platforms, adopting river and river-health programmes and ensuring legal compliance.

Currently, agriculture was the greatest driver of biodiversity loss in South Africa, with 50% of all wetlands lost owing to agricultural transformation.

WWF-SA called for less competition and greater collaboration and information sharing between agribusiness companies, adding that it continued to advocate environmental sustainability as a “precompetitive issue” that required a united and collective effort.

The organisation said it had already demonstrated, along with its various partners in the agriculture sector, examples of improved land use planning, improved production and responsible farming practices. “This includes agro-ecological partnerships within the fruit, barley, dairy, beef, sugar and wine industries.”

Retailers also needed to do their part by playing a more active role in supporting such collaborative efforts, reducing food waste in their supply chain and in-store and supporting collaborative farmer extension programmes, while consumers could focus on managing their food waste, growing their own food and supporting local organic food markets.

Other initiatives included the installation of rain water tanks and grey-water systems; reducing consumption of highly processed, high-sugar and empty-calorie foods; considering the source of protein being eaten, as high-protein diets had a “dramatic impact on our planet”; knowing the contents of food and supporting products that demonstrated responsible food choices such as rangeland, grass-fed beef and free-range chicken.

For the economy and communities to flourish the food, energy and water nexus needed to be in balance. “Security of supply in these three resources forms the basis of a self-sufficient economy and resilient ecosystems are the bedrock of this stability,” said the Farming Facts and Futures report.

Nedbank Sustainability head Brigitte Burnett said the agriculture sector in South Africa was at a pivotal point in history, adding that Nedbank participated in the report as it provided valuable insight to the bank’s clients operating in the agriculture sector and “water, land and energy are such vital cogs within our economy”.