Agriculture and food security[edit]

At the national level, only a few Southern Africa countries produce enough food to
meet their own needs (e.g. South Africa), making the rest dependent on their
capacity to purchase imported food (e.g. Namibia and Botswana) or on food aid
(e.g. Lesotho, DRC, Malawi and Zimbabwe).[9] Some key factors affecting the
food security within the regions including political instability, poor governance,
droughts, population growth, urbanisation, poverty, low economic growth,
inadequate agricultural policies, trade terms and regimes, resource degradation
and the recent increase in HIV/AIDS.[9][10][11]

These factors vary from country to country for example, the Democratic Republic
of Congo has favourable climatic and physical conditions, but performs far below
its capacity in food provision due to political instability and poor governance. In
contrast, semi-arid countries such as Botswana and Namibia, produce insufficient
food, but successfully achieve food security through food imports due to
economic growth, political stability and good governance. The Republic of South
Africa is a major food producer and exporter in the region.[12]

Data on Agricultural production trends and food insecurity especially in term of

food availability for Southern Africa is readily available through The Famine Early
Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) and Southern African Development
Community (SADC)- Food, Agriculture and Nature Resource Directorate (FARN).
However this data might not fully capture the reality of a region with high urban
populations and where food insecurity goes beyond per capital availability to
issues of access and dietary adequacy.[13][14]

Urban food security has been noted as an emerging area of development concern
in the region, with recent data showing high levels of food insecurity amongst
low-income households. In a study of eleven cities in nine countries: Blantyre,
Cape Town, Gaborone, Harare, Johannesburg, Lusaka, Maputo, Manzini, Maseru,
Msunduzi (Durban Metro) and Windhoek, only 17% of households were
categorized as food secure while more than half (57%) of all households
surveyed were found to be severely food insecure.[15]

Some factors affecting urban food insecurity include climate change with
potential impact on agricultural productivity, the expansion of supermarkets in
the region, which is changing the way people obtain food in the city, rural to
urban migration, unemployment and poverty.[16][17][18][19] The issue of food
insecurity in general and urban food insecurity in particular in the region is also
characterized by an increased consumption of caloric junk and processed foods
leading to potential increase in the co-existence of undernutrition and dietary

related chronic diseases such as obesity and hypertension.[20][21] In South

Africa for example, while over 50% experience hunger, 61% are overweight or
morbidly obese.[22][23][24] There is only limited data on the other Southern
African countries.