Photo by: Duane Daws
Twenty trucks carrying more than 700 t of maize meal procured from emerging South African farmers are scheduled to leave a mill, in Nigel, Gauteng, on Wednesday for Maseru, the capital of Lesotho, to deliver the final consignment of maize meal for hunger relief efforts deployed by the South African government and the United Nations (UN) World Food Programme (WFP).
The initiative was launched in response to a major food crisis declared in Lesotho in 2012 and the final delivery was enough to provide daily school meals to 27 700 children for one school year.
Government contributed R180-million to WFP, enabling the provision of food assistance to some 263 000 vulnerable women and children in the Mountain Kingdom.
The UN programme sourced 40% of the cereals needed for Lesotho from smallholder farmers in South Africa, as part of its commitment to support smallholder farmers, in agreement with government. This marked the first time that WFP had bought commodities for its regional operations from smallholder farmers in South Africa. To date, the programme had bought more than 4 300 t of maize and sugar beans, worth R21-million, from this sector.
The UN programme also procured about 16 000 t of commodities for R117-million from commercial traders in South Africa, as part of the R180-million South African donation to Lesotho.
“Government is pleased to be part of this endeavour to help those who are deprived in Lesotho. Equally, government has hailed this partnership with WFP, which says it is committed to supporting government in integrating smallholder farmers further into the economy,” the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said in a statement this week.
WFP noted that it was increasingly exploring ways to empower smallholder farmers through food purchases and better marketing capacity – drawing on lessons learned from its global Purchase for Progress initiative.
In recent years, this project supported farmers, helping them grow more, sell more – including to WFP for use in food assistance programmes – earn more and become competitive players in their local markets. From its regional bureau in Johannesburg, WFP last year bought 114 000 t of food, valued at $58.4-million, from Southern African Development Community countries.
Currently, more than 100 South African smallholder farmer organisations were registered on WFP’s food supplier database. The UN programme and its partners had also provided training on a range of subjects, including storage and post-harvest handling, to government officials and hundreds of members of South African farmer organisations.