Johannesburg - The drought has hit not only the farmers in outlying areas and other provinces, but also the residents of Joburg - especially the poor who will now be receiving a food parcel twice a month instead of weekly.
And the Joburg Market, which helps the City of Joburg feed the poor with its surpluses of fruit and vegetables, has also been affected.
The city’s member of the mayoral committee for health and social development, Nonceba Molwele, said last year the city provided food parcels to almost 19 500 beneficiaries a week at a cost of R2 million a month.
This year, 34 200 people are being helped at a cost of R6m a month, and, from the beginning of February, an additional 8 100 will be fed, bringing the total number of beneficiaries to 42 300.
“This means between now and June we will need about R30m to feed the poor,” Molwele said.
Since January 1, the price of potatoes has gone up by 95 percent, tomatoes by 97 percent, onions by 41 percent and bananas by 10 percent.
The R30m will be used to fund the city’s Food Resilience Programme which consists of a number of initiatives, including starting co-operative farms, where small-scale farmers are helped identify and purchase land, equipment and seeds.
In return, the city gets a certain portion of their crops for the distribution of food parcels to the poor.
The other aspect of the programme is the Food Bank at the Joburg Market where surplus fruit and vegetables are “banked” and donated to the city for the food parcels.
Tshifhiwa Madima, executive manager of agribusiness at the Joburg Market, said the city’s Food Resilience Programme was under threat because of the drought.
Speaking of the performance of the market, Madima said that year-on-year, prices had gone up, while volumes had dropped.
“All farmers have been severely affected by this, but small-scale farmers are worse off. At least commercial farmers have insurance to cover some of this. Overall production went down. When supplies drop, prices go up, especially for vegetables,” he said.
“Fruit volumes don’t drop as much as cash crops because they have a longer cycle.”
@annacox
The Star