Nazeer Sonday
Land reform has the exciting potential to secure the Philippi Horticultural Area (PHA) foodlands’ future and make the city’s climate resilient, but yet again that future is in the hands of those who make decisions about land use.
In 2020 when Cape Town and the country were shaken to the core by the Covid-19 pandemic and lockdowns, travel and food supply chain disruptions and rising food prices, the PHA foodland achieved two significant milestones.
First, in February 2020 the Western Cape High Court recognised that land use above the aquifer would be central to its survival; it also recognised that climate change would be a crucial factor in whether the breadbasket could continue to feed the city in the future.
Second, the 94ha Exclusive Trading development withdrew its high court case against the City of Cape Town and PHA Campaign to overturn the Municipal Planning Tribunal ruling for a 6 000-house development.
This was the pet project of Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille. After this, the developer pursued a 12-month engagement with the PHA Campaign to work out a new deal.
The new proposal involved selling 94ha to the national Department of Rural Development and Land Reform (DRDLR) and, with the help of a prominent national minister, guarantee PHA Campaign farmers would become the preferred BEE land reform partner.
In exchange the PHA Campaign would support the development of a shopping centre on the adjacent 10ha land also owned by Exclusive Trading.
The PHA Campaign declined the offer. Failing to secure a deal, the developer sold the land to the Department.
The DRDLR initiated a land reform beneficiary process, first unofficially by selecting “caretaker farmers” in January 2022, and officially in October 2022 with a public beneficiary selection process held over the December holidays.
Climate change and the just transition in agriculture
South Africa is severely impacted by climate instability. The country frequently experiences droughts, floods, and other extreme weather events, with evidence that the frequency and intensity of such events are increasing because of climate change.
Climate instability also places significant stress on food security and South Africa’s already-constrained water resources, creating knock-on impacts in other sectors.
According to the Presidential Climate Commission Report and the Framework for a Just Transition in South Africa, a just transition needs to contribute to the goals of decent work for all, social inclusion, and the eradication of poverty and must address – and not exacerbate – inequalities in the food system.
How can land reform secure the future of the PHA foodland and the city’s climate resilience?
Land reform in the PHA foodland has the potential to secure the area’s 130-year-old farming tradition, significantly increase employment and farming livelihoods, build a resilient farming community and make the PHA foodland the centre of Cape Town’s climate resilience.
But the PHA foodland faces serious challenges. How land reform is undertaken will either make the PHA foodland resilient, or exacerbate the challenges it faces.
Who receives land reform land matters?
Since 1994, well over a million farm workers were evicted from farms in South Africa. This is a tragedy and the loss of valuable farming skills and knowledge that weaken the food system, directly affecting food security.
South Africa has more than 200 000 small-scale commercial farmers of colour, but the lack government support fails to realise their full potential. In contrast, 80% of the food consumed by a population of 60 million is supplied by only 40 000 large-scale white commercial farmers.
Land reform could potentially address this legacy and contribute towards social inclusion, decent work for all, and the eradication of poverty.
BEE as a solution for agriculture is questionable.
While BEE farms have clear winners – a few boardroom farmers and the principal white farmer, it’s not so clear how BEE and the investment of public funds will lead to greater public good. Will a BEE farm change the condition of farmworkers, address urban hunger and malnutrition by improving food access and affordability, create new jobs and livelihoods, conserve and protect of our natural resources, and facilitate the development of young and women farmers of colour?
Ageing farmer population
The biggest threat facing the PHA foodland is the ageing farmer population and the lack of a farmer succession plan.
While Cape Town needs more food and more farmers to grow the food, farmers in the PHA foodland are ageing. The average age of South African farmers is 62, and the PHA foodland is no different.
Meanwhile young people – aged 18 to 34 – make up a third of the population and are the most affected by unemployment.
Land reform in the PHA foodland must address this critical issue by making more land available for young and women farmers.
Agriculture’s transition from a high carbon to a carbon positive future
To address the food system’s vulnerability to climate change, agriculture must move away from intensive and industrialised approaches towards food systems based on the regeneration of the ecology (literally the house in which our food is grown) – in particular soil, water, and biodiversity.
The shift from industrial to Agroecology – the application of ecological concepts and principles in farming – must simultaneously create more opportunities for young and women farmers to enter the sector, increase employment and livelihood opportunities, eliminate food insecurity, and provide high quality nutrient-dense food produced at scale to address access and affordable food for everyone in the city.
Small farms vs large farms
There is an Afrikaans saying that often serves as a proud farm name, “kleinbegin” or “small start”.
The government in its desire to produce a high impact in land reform with little input, has over the years set up farmers of colour to fail. Large commercial farms have been bought and handed over to beneficiaries in ways that are akin to giving a spaza shop owner the keys to a Pick n Pay family store.
The result always ends in tears. This caused the majority of land reform projects to at worst fail, and at best be kept alive on a drip system of government grants.
A study undertaken by Plaas at the University of the Western Cape funded by the National Treasury and the EU suggest that significant increases in the employment intensity of agriculture can be achieved if land is redistributed to small-scale farmers.
Globally, small-scale farming systems grow 50% of food calories on 30% of the agricultural land.
Smaller farms tend to be more productive per hectare than much larger farms.
Family farmers have a vested interest in protecting the long-term productivity of their land. They are also more likely than larger farmers to grow a wide variety of crops, contributing to agro-biodiversity and diet diversity for communities. Almost every example of large-scale national poverty reduction was kick-started by rising incomes among small-scale farmers.
After 14 years of sustained advocacy by the PHA Campaign and prior to that by the local civic SCEA, restoring the 94ha to the foodland is a significant shift in securing the future of the area.
The PHA has all the ingredients and the potential to flourish and play a vital role as a vehicle for the city’s climate resilience, food security and restorative justice.
However, the future of the PHA is yet again in the hands of those who make decisions about land use.
Sonday is a small-scale farmer in the Philippi Horticultural Area foodland. He is an Atlantic Fellow for Racial Equity, chairman of the PHA Food & Farming Campaign and member of the PHA Primary Agricultural Co-operative.
Cape Times