WeeklySA_AdminSUSTENANCE: Community farms, school gardens and youth-owned agricultural businesses could help put healthier food within reach of poorer households while creating much-needed income, says Rhiza Babuyile…
By WSAM Reporter
Cheap, highly processed food is keeping healthier diets beyond the reach of many poorer South African households, highlighting the need to tackle food affordability and unemployment together.
Non-profit organisation Rhiza Babuyile says improving nutrition requires more than encouraging people to make healthier choices. Communities also need affordable fresh produce and opportunities to earn enough to sustain healthier diets.
“South Africa is not underfed, but it is undernourished,” said Alef Meulenberg, founder of Rhiza Holdings.
We cannot blame people for choosing cheap food when cheap food is what they can afford…
“We have many food programmes, but often the food provided is not sufficiently nutritious. We also cannot blame people for choosing cheap food when cheap food is what they can afford. If we want healthier communities, we have to make healthier food affordable.”
The organisation’s message centres on a difficult reality: households struggling to put food on the table can also face obesity and poor nutrition when the most accessible options do not provide a balanced diet.
For Rhiza Babuyile, who works with under-resourced communities through agriculture, skills development and enterprise, part of the answer lies in helping people grow food, sell it and build livelihoods.
Its agricultural programmes combine practical crop production with business training, seeking to improve access to fresh vegetables while opening economic opportunities for unemployed young people.
“We have developed models where schools can develop their own vegetable food gardens,” Meulenberg said.
“We have also developed an entrepreneurship programme where young people are trained in entrepreneurial activities around organic food and healthier food options, so they can provide communities with food options they did not have before at a similar price.”
The work includes Thuthuwa Farm in Diepsloot, where participants receive crop-production training and exposure to commercial farming, and Amathuba Farm in Orange Farm, which produces seedlings and vegetables including spinach, onions, broccoli, beetroot and okra.
The intention is to help participants progress from growing crops to running viable agricultural enterprises. That requires an understanding of customers, demand and the costs of bringing produce to market.
“Growing food is only one part of it,” Meulenberg said. “People need to understand the market, the customer, pricing and how to make the business sustainable.”
Rhiza’s agripreneurship model brings together agricultural training, entrepreneurship, employability skills and practical experience.
“If people can produce food and earn an income from it, you are addressing two problems at the same time,” he said. “Food security and economic security cannot be treated as separate issues.”
School vegetable gardens form another part of the approach. They are intended to supply fresh produce while teaching children where food comes from and how it is grown.
Meulenberg said improved nutrition could have benefits extending into children’s development and learning.
“Better nutrition can mean less stunting, better brain and physical development and, ultimately, better educational and health outcomes,” he said.
The organisation also argues that innovation in agriculture need not depend on expensive equipment or sophisticated technology. It can involve using available land more effectively, supporting young farmers and shortening the distance between producers and consumers.
“Innovation does not necessarily mean sophisticated technology,” Meulenberg said. “It can mean finding better ways to use land, bringing young people into agriculture, connecting producers to markets and producing food closer to the communities that consume it.”
The challenge is to ensure that nutritious food becomes a realistic everyday option for households with limited incomes.
“Food should nourish people, but it can also create opportunity. If we can get those two things working together, agriculture becomes part of the solution to hunger, poor nutrition and unemployment.”
Meulenberg called for cooperation across government, agriculture, business, schools and communities to improve both access to food and participation in its production.
“We need to produce better food, make it accessible and affordable, and create opportunities for people to participate in the food economy,” he said.
“If we work together, we can build a food system that not only feeds people, but gives them the opportunity to live healthier, more secure lives.”
