FOOD INSECURE

SPACES OF POVERTY
in rural Western Cape
This study was written by

Emil Skovgaard Andersen

Supervisor Abdulkadir Osman Farah

Development and International Relations, Aalborg University 9. Semester, January 2011

Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

Table of contents
1.Introduction(SpacesofPoverty)...........................................................2 2.Researchquestion.................................................................................3 3.ApproachandMethodology..................................................................4 4.FoodinsecuritywithinspacesofpovertyinruralWesternCape...........6 5.Alternativepathstofoodsecurity........................................................10 6.Casestudies........................................................................................14
5.1.Foodgardensinpoorruralcommunities..............................................11 5.2.Smallscalefarmingoncommonages.....................................................12 6.1.ThecaseofBarrydale............................................................................14 ThehistoricalcontextofBarrydale...........................................................14 FoodgardensinBarrydale........................................................................16 Smallscalefarmingbymembersofthepoorcommunity........................18 6.2.CommunityfarmersinRiviersonderend................................................22

7.Discussion;comparingcasesandunderstandingcauses......................23 8.Recommendations...............................................................................26 9.Conclusion..........................................................................................30 10.ListofAcronymsandabbreviations...................................................31 11.Bibliography......................................................................................32 12.AppendixA.......................................................................................33 13.AppendixB........................................................................................34

Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

1. Introduction (Spaces of Poverty)

IM HUNGRY, CN'T THINK
- Bonnievale Youth banner

The first important aspect of rural food insecurity in the Western Cape is its spatial nature, side by side with wealth poverty prevails and with poverty comes food insecurity. When you drive through the rural areas of the Western Cape one of the things you will notice is how almost the entire infrastructure, rural towns and villages are geared towards supporting a highly developed and modern agricultural sector geared towards export of mainly wines and all sorts of fruit. Another thing you will notice as you drive through the small urbanised spots in rural Western Cape is the repeated pattern of geographically confined spaces of absolute poverty. Sometimes they are a part of the small towns and cities, often they are at the periphery and sometimes they are located outside. Even though there is a huge variation in the appearance of these confined spaces of absolute poverty, from townships established during the apartheid era to shack towns and informal settlements, their presence is a defining characteristic of urban space in rural Western Cape. These spaces are often very isolated from each other as the distances are huge and public transportation is mostly absent or expensive. Unemployment is very high in these spaces as they absorb regional surplus labour and are highly dependant of casual and seasonal work in agriculture and related industries. These geographically confined spaces of absolute poverty hold a disproportionally large number of food insecure rural households. This study examines food insecurity in spaces of poverty. The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines poverty as, the state of lacking adequate means to live comfortably and the want of things or needs indispensable to life." Another definition that is widely used is that of OECD, Poverty encompasses different dimensions of deprivation that relate to human capabilities including consumption and food security, health, education, rights, voice, security, dignity and decent work. Food insecurity, malnutrition and food deprivation are some biggest challenges faced by households and communities in these spaces and these challenges (or phenomenons) are placed in a dialectic relationship with poverty. On the interrelations between food insecurity and poverty FAO (2008:3) states that While poverty is undoubtedly

Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

a cause of hunger, lack of adequate and proper nutrition itself is an underlying cause of poverty. Therefore in order to fight poverty in these spaces it is necessary to fight food insecurity and thus; also the obstacles to improving food security. The purpose of investigating the nature of food insecurity in these spaces of poverty is to come up with recommendations, to residents and social activists living in these these spaces, on how and where to act in order to improve community and household food security. The present socio-economic context of rural western cape, with a particular focus on the spaces of poverty, will be examined in order to form a basis on which such recommendations on selforganised initiatives for improving food security can can be built. To achieve these goals the following research question will guide this study:

2. Research question
How can communities located in spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape improve their own food security, taking their present socio-economic reality into consideration?

The focus of this study is not to provide solutions and guidance to policy makers on how to resolve problems, but to assist in providing information to the residents of poor rural communities in the Western Cape, hereby assisting them in building a basis for social and political action. This focus on collective self action is based partly on the experience that the South African government, especially on municipal and provincial level, seldom act on behalf of the marginalised when pressure from below is absent, and the assumption that the best vehicle for such pressure is the self-organised popular movements and organisations of the lower echelons of society representing none other that themselves. It is my opinion that when the poor communities are empowered to decide by themselves; how to organise, improve and develop: the development initiatives taken and demands championed reflect the social reality and needs which these communities experience and hereby form a cornerstone in ensuring sustainable social and economic development within and between these communities. Therefore the purpose of this study is to contribute to the debates within the popular social movements organizing within the poor rural communities on how to organise, mobilise and

Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

take action to change the current social realities faced by these communities. Another purpose of the study is to contribute to the already existing information on the social realities faced by the food insecure communities in spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape.

3. Approach and Methodology

This study is a case study examining conditions of food insecurity in spaces of poverty. The study is sub-divided into three sections; 1. an examination of the present socio-economic realities and the nature of food insecurity within spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape; 2. the conditions wherein alternatives to income based food security, can exist (alternatives defined as: food gardening, and small-scale farming on commonages); 3. and finally a discussion of the findings in the two previous examinations leading to recommendations for community action.

In examining the conditions wherein alternatives to food security based on income can exist, case studies from spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape will be used as the basis for understanding these conditions. The two main cases are from Riviersonderend (Theewaterskloof Local Municipality) and Barrydale (Swellendam Local Municipality), which are both located in the Overberg district. Beside from these two cases results from previous studies in Breede River Valley will be used.

The bulk of data assembled and used in this study is collected in the period between the middle of September and December 2010. It is qualitative data collected through observations, discussions and interviews. Observations cover both observations done when staying and moving around in the rural areas and poor communities; and observing meetings and workshops either engaging residents in poor communities or held by their own organizations. Taking minutes and notes have been the main method of data storage in these situations; some data have been obtained through discussions with local residents, social activists and NGO staff. The interviews was done in a freeform approach with relatively few questions making as much space as possible for the interviewed to tell their own story. One challenge in conducting the interviews was that several of the interviewed preferred to speak in Afrikaans or either entirely partly (rendering me dependant in an translator). In total 10 people were interviewed including 2 community activists.

Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

The main sources for external data used in this study is derived from livelihood and household surveys conducted by TCOE in collaboration with Mawubuye in Bonnievale, McGregor, Ashton, Robertson and Montagu; and from a study by TCOE utilizing data from survey as well as cases from the poor communities. The approach to obtaining data for the research was based on Participatory Action Research, and the outcomes was analysed by PLAAS. Data extracted from the above studies and used in this study are mainly statistical data describing the socioeconomic realities in the poor communities and qualitative data on household livelihood strategies. Other sources were studies on the nature of food insecurity in South Africa and studies on patterns of employment in agriculture and its related industries. Official statistics published by Statistics South Africa have also been used in outlining the patterns of employment in Western Cape agriculture and its related industries.

Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

4. Food insecurity within spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape

This chapter will examine present socio-economic realities and the nature of food insecurity within spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape. The socio-economic realities - as well as the nature of food insecurity, experienced by residents living within spaces of poverty in Rural Western Cape is important: when accessing the possibilities these communities have for improving their current situation (in relation to food insecurity) and thus either initiating processes of positive social development or counter the development of underdevelopment. This part of the study will rely on research conducted by others, official statistics as well as personal observations and data retrieved while I was in the Western Cape rural areas with TCOE, Mawubuye and CSAAWU. The Definition of food security that forms the basis for the vision of the Integrated Food Security Strategy of the South African Government (DoA 2002:13) originate from the 1996 World Food Summit. Food security, according to this definition: exists, at the individual, household, national, regional, and global levels when all people, at all times, have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for a healthy and active life (FAO 2001). Due to the high agricultural output in the Western Cape food availability is not the obstacle for achieving food security in poor rural communities. Generally South Africa is perceived as food secure. Because of this it is often overlooked that large numbers of households within the country are food insecure (Altman et al 2009:7) and the tools for standardized systematic monitoring of the internal food security situation is not properly developed and lack investments. The reason for this might be complacency regarding the national food security situation (Hart 2009:34). This is potentially dangerous when taken into consideration that South Africa is one of the most socio-economic polarized countries in the world and compared to other middle income countries, it has extremely high levels of absolute poverty (Altman et al 2009:7). The fact that a country is national food secure does not mean that every one within have equal access to proper sources of food and the more polarized a country is, the more skewed the access to food is. In South Africa food insecurity is not an exceptional, short-term event, but a continuous threat

Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

for more than a third of the population. The two most common nutritional disorders in South Africa is stunted growth and being underweight. A survey from 2005 shows that 51.6% of South African households have experienced hunger, one out of three were at risk of hunger and only one out of five appeared to be food secure. The geographical distribution of households experiencing hunger was highest in the Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and Limpopo. Most rural households are net deficient food producers. The poor in the rural areas have suffered the most from food price increases as most households in these areas are partially or wholly reliant on household income as their access to food. "Households at risk or experining hunger were consistenty related with socio-economic factors including household monthly income, weekly expenditure on food and employment status" (Agrekon 2010).

When people in the spaces of poverty are employed in agriculture, the wages they earn is often very low, about R6.31 per hour, R284 per week (TCOE 2009b:32). The same goes for related industries for instance: at the Robertson Abattoir workers, residing in the Nkqubela township, earned R315 per week without benefits. Often the households located in these spaces depend on the wages earned by few or only one member of the household; again the workers at the Robertson Abattoir serves as an example as each worker was responsible for supporting and feeding, on average, 6 people. 1 The research conducted in 2007 by TCOE and Mawubuye in the Breede River Winelands reveals that in the rural Western Cape hunger is of a cyclical nature and connected to the extent and patterns of employment in commercial agriculture. In recent years commercial agriculture have not only contracted, but is also undergoing a process of shifting towards temporary casual and seasonal employment rather than full time employment (TCOE 2009b:32). The results are backed by other studies earlier studies as well as official statistics (See appendix A). Data collected by Andries du Toit and Fadeela Ally indicate the growing importance of temporary workers. More work is done by off-farm temporary workers than by permanent workers; off-farm temporary workers also predominate over regular ones in absolute terms; the volume of work, measured in time worked, by permanent workers was only half as much as that done by off-farm temporary workers (Ally et al 2003:11). According to du Toit and Ally it is widely accepted that labour1 During the last days at my internship I spent a lot of time working together with dismissed workers from the Robertson Abattoir.

Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

intensive horticulture is shedding jobs (Ally et al 2003:6). This employment shift is not unique for the Western Cape, it is a nation wide tendency. A 2005 study by Nkuzi found that between 1985 and 2004, in the wake of the shift towards temporary casual and seasonal employment 1.7 million farm dwellers had been displaced (Nkuzi 2005:41), 10.6 percent of the evicted households were located in the Western Cape (Nkuzi 2005:59) often evicted farm dwellers moved to nearby townships (Nkuzi 2005:86). The influx of people from farms to formal and informal rural and urban townships have had a significant negative impact on unemployment in these spaces. The consequence of unemployment is poverty. Which in turn has a series of consequences. One of them is: "physical weakness and malnutrition within the household, as a result of a lack of food and inadequate nutrition, puts an additional burden on schools and healthcare facilities that attempt to provide feeding schemes" (Nkuzi 2005:173). It is estimated that roughly 70 percent of the poorest households in South Africa live in rural areas (Ally et al 2004:3). In relation to the employment and food insecurity situation in the Western Cape; the 2007 Breede River Valley survey by TCOE and Mawubuye survey showed that 76 percent of all respondents did not have a permanent job, but 63 percent reported that another person/other persons in the household did so. The survey furthermore indicated that very few households have any other form of income, other than state welfare grants. In the survey 80 percent of households reported that during the past year there were times when the household had little to eat. During the year households experiencing shortages of food increases from 35 percent in January to 72-73 percent in June-July-August and then declines to the lowest levels in November and December (10-9 percent).

Reported levels of hunger

Farm dwellers
90 80 70 Percentage 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Jan Feb Mar Apr May Jun Jul Aug Sep Oct Nov Dec Months

Town Households

Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

The survey, even though focused on households in Breede River Valley, outline the seasonal nature of food insecurity in the Western Cape as it follows the same patterns as the annual agricultural employment trends in the province. During off-peak seasons, poor people experiences widespread hunger, trapping those dependant on seasonal income in a vicious cycle of poverty and food insecurity year after year (TCOE 2009b). The cyclical nature of hunger and food insecurity related to seasonal patterns of employment in commercial agriculture and related industries, in the Western Cape make it relevant to examine alternatives to income based food access. The alternatives commonly available to residents in poor communities include engaging in farming activities on micro-scale (food gardening) and small-scale (often on commonage land) both of which are heavily dependant on access to water. In poor communities in the Western Cape there is an interest in engaging in micro- and small-scale food production. When Mawubuye representatives from the poor communities in Ashton, Barrydale, Bonnievale, Buffelsjaag, Robertson, Swellendam and Villiersdorp held a meeting in September 2010 in Villiersdorp they outlined the problems their communities have in common. Beside from the: high rates of unemployment; the seasonal character available work; lack of rights for farm workers; no proper sanitation; overcrowded clinics; experiencing extreme poverty with children eating out of garbage bins; drugs are common with the youth; and high crime levels, the representatives also emphasized the lack of land for housing, growing crops and grazing and the problems with accessing water. Representatives from communities were the practice of food gardening is absent expressed interest of introducing these practises to their communities.

Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

5. Alternative paths to food security

The following chapters, including the case studies, will examine the conditions wherein alternatives (for communities confined in spaces of poverty) to income based food security based income can exist. These alternatives have been defined as: food gardening and smallscale farming on commonages (micro- and small-scale food production). In improving the food security situation of communities located within spaces of poverty it is necessary to have an understanding of the current conditions wherein alternatives to income based food security can exist. Both of these alternatives to income based food security provide the possibility of improving food security from a multidimensional approach as these enables improvements on the for dimensions of food security. These four dimensions are commonly defined as: Food availability, Food access, Utilization and Stability (FAO 2008:1). According to FAO all of these four dimensions must be fulfilled simultaneously for food security objectives to be realized (FOA 2008:1).

Therefore this study will examine the challenges faced by those who engage in household food gardening; and by those residing in these communities who engage in small-scale farming. The basis for this study will be two case studies the first on community small-scale farming in Riviersonderend. The second is a case study I conducted for TCOE on the challenges of accessing water experienced by the poor community in Barrydale in relation to household food gardening and small-scale farming: Information from other case studies conducted by TCOE and information I have retrieved by engaging with other poor communities of rural Western Cape will also be utilized in this part. When examining small-

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Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

scale farming the study will focus on farming activities on commonages, as commonages are linked directly to the communities living in the rural towns.

5.1. Food gardens in poor rural communities

We want to plant food gardens, because the poverty is high. - Resident in Villiersdorp Available evidence indicates that food production for own consumption, whether in the form of vegetable gardens or in the form of small-scale livestock husbandry, is more important for household food security in rural communities than it is in their urban communities ( Aliber et
al 2004:62). Under optimal conditions food gardens and domestic livestock production in

poor communities can play an important role in rural areas when it comes to improving the food security. It can contribute to household income and be an addition to nutritional diversity. Vegetable and fruit gardens have a particularly important potential role in improving the flow and composition of nutrition (Aliber et al 2004:4). Research indicate that rural households engaging in cultivation appear to have a substantially greater diversity of food intake, not least of vegetables, than those that do not ( Aliber et al 2004:61). Serious constraints for domestic food production in rural communities include access to extension support and to water (Aliber et al 2004:61). It should be noted that food production for household consumption provides a set of additional grounds for expenditure on water and electricity infrastructure. Therefore the success of such activities is often dependant on income. However if successful it permits expenditure of limited income on other more nutritious foods (Hart 2010). There do not exist any comprehensive data estimating the provisional or national extent of food gardens, but it can be said that the extent and popularity of food gardens varies a lot from community to community. For example in Barrydale the use of food gardens as a supplement a way of acquiring additional food seems to be quite extensive. In the five towns of the Breede River Winelands (Bonnievale, McGregor, Ashton, Robertson and Montagu) there is an estimate of about 1 200 individual food gardens with the highest concentration in the Mandela Square Informal Settlement in Montague and the Ashbury township (TCOE

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Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

2009b:35). The backyard food gardens not only provided the individual household with additional food, but at times they where also able to provide for other destitute households in the extended family. In the case studies conducted by TCOE and Mawubuye in Mandela Square the interviewed was of the belief that they could expand their food production if they were provided with access to more land, water and government extension services (TCOE 2009b:50-52). The cases indicate the absence of any kind of state support to household food gardens in rural Western Cape. The absence could have been caused by a public blind spot or simply that the public authorities do not care about household food gardens and the initiatives of the poorest in local society. However popular NGO's and social movements like Women on Farms and Mawubuye have provided support in the form of seedlings and helped obtaining tools from the DoA.

5.2. Small-scale farming on commonages

We love the ground and we love to work here... - Small-scale farmer, Barrydale Commonage is municipal owned land reserved for agricultural purposes of the poor and landless. There exist two types of commonages; new and existing. Existing commonages is land that was granted by the state to white municipalities for the use and benefit of poor white town residents during the 1800s and onwards (TCOE 2010:2). Under the apartheid it was common practice for the municipalities to lease the commonages to white commercial farmers. After 1994 all town residents became entitled to access municipal commonages, however by then most of these commonages were already being leased to white commercial farmers; some with long term leases of up to 50 years (TCOE 2010:3). New commonages consist of former commercial agricultural land that has been purchased with state funds by a municipality since 1994 (TCOE 1994). The title deeds of commonages are subjected to special conditions that prevent a municipality from selling, donating or swapping the commonage land; also a municipality may not agree to the registration of a bond against the commonage to secure a loan; and the municipality is obliged to make the land available to its residents only, with the emphasis on the poor and less privileged, on a secure end equitable basis (TCOE 2010:2).

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Commonage projects faces a series of challenges whether they are individual or collective projects. The first challenge is accessing the limited land, which often is either leased to commercial agriculture or unavailable because of bureaucratic inefficiencies. The second is travel distance to the commonages. The third is the state or absence of infrastructure on the land. The fourth is the access to water caused by lack of infrastructure for irrigation or the absence of user rights to available water. the fifth is the absence of support from municipalities and/or departments. The sixth is the issue of accessing commercial markets for the purpose of selling surplus production. Water access and lack of extension services was a problem for the collective small-scale farmers working on commonages in Ashton and Zolani (TCOE 2009b:36). When a collective of small-scale commonage farmers in Suurbraak harvested their crops (4000 heads of cabbage) the only commercial off-taker was located in Worcester, after the transport costs had been covered the farmers was left with a profit of R900, for half a year of work. 2 In the TCOE case studies market access for surplus was also one of the challenges faced in Ashton, Zolani and McGregor (TCOE 2009b:36). This should be seen as a clear indication that the problem, in this situation is of a structural nature: The institutions for commercial off-take is developed to serve centralised large-scale agriculture. Limited financial support, lack of formal land rights, limited access to land water and fencing are problems faced by stockholders in Zolani and Nkqubela (TCOE 2009b:36). The case of the community farmers in Riviersonderend is an example of the challenges to small-scale farming caused by bureaucratic inefficiencies, neglect and even animosity from the municipality. Problems related to the distance to commonages offered by the municipality to the farmers, problems related to accessing water as well as other challenges were all present in Riviersonderend in the last quarter of 2011. The case of Riviersonderend will be examined later in the study.

2 Based on personal notes from the internship.

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6. Case studies
6.1. The case of Barrydale
The following is a case study on the challenges experienced by the residents living in the township on the outskirts of Barrydale engaging in food gardening and small-scale farming on commonages. The challenges experienced in Barrydale by the poor community are not unique for this community, but seem to be repeated in many poor rural communities throughout the Western Cape, which the contents of the previous chapters is a clear indication of. The information used in this study is mainly retrieved through interviews conducted in the poor community in Barrydale on the 24. and 25. November 2010 with its residents, some of them social activists. The case study document the experiences and challenges faced by the poor community in Barrydale in relation to water access and usage. Even though the main focus gravitates around issues of water access and usage in relation to micro- and small-scale food production in the poor community, other issues surfacing through the interviews will also be covered. This case study will first outline the historical context for the current water issues in Barrydale, thereafter the current water issues in relation to food gardening within the limits of the township will be outlined. After examining what is going on within the borders of the township, the issues and challenges related to small-scale farming in the surrounding areas by members of the community will be examined. Throughout this document a particular focus will be directed towards what the members of the community thinks could be done to improve the current situation.

The historical context of Barrydale

The following is a short introduction to the historical context of Barrydale, its divisions and social conflicts. During the apartheid the coloured residents of Barrydale was forcefully removed from their homes in the front of the town and relocated to a township at the outskirts of Barrydale. This separated the community of Barrydale into two communities; a rich white community at the front of the town and a poor coloured community in the back of Barrydale. The latter serving as a cheap labour force for the white community and the surrounding

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commercial farmers. In the process of being displaced from their homes and relocated to the townships the coloured people also lost their rights to use irrigation water. The loss of the rights to irrigation now poses a huge problem for the residents engaging in food production in their gardens. The social and spatial division of Barrydale into a rich, mainly white, community and a poor, mainly coloured, community still prevails even though apartheid fell sixteen years ago. From the front of the city most of the township is hidden behind a hill and it leaves you with the false impression that the socio-economic divides are smaller in Barrydale, than in other places. Resident in the poor community are to a high extent dependant on work in the surrounding agriculture and its related industries and in the offseason, unemployment rates in the community drastically increases. In the off-season the community experiences hunger and about 500 residents are dependant on the soup kitchen. In the beginning of 2009 Barrydale was the centre for an escalating conflict between the municipality and the residents of the township over access to water and electricity. In February about 30 households in the poor community in Barrydale had their water and their electricity cut off. Nobody got a notification that they had a certain number of days to settle their account. On Friday 27 February 2009 in the morning there was a peaceful march to the municipal office where the community handed over a memorandum. When the municipal manager, Walter Hendricks, received the memorandum he said, in front of cameras and everyone, that he had already instructed municipal officials to turn the services back on. So the community went back and waited for their water and electricity to come back on, but nothing happened. So later that day they went to the offices to find out why the services had not been turned on again. They were arrested but released later that afternoon. Officials once again told them that the municipal workers would not go home without turning on the communitys services, still nothing happened. On Monday 2. March, the community went back to the offices to make a follow up to find out why people were still without water. The municipal officials responded by calling in the police from as far as Montagu and Swellendam and 28 members of the community where arrested. The woman were sent to Swellendam holding cells and the men were sent to Montagu. When a community leader, Dulcie Wyngard, went to visit arrested members of the community in the prisons and to arrange a lawyer the police refused to allow her to visit the detainees. The arrested members of the community were charged with breaking the peace and holding an illegal public

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meeting/demonstration. Since then the court has postponed the case and eventually all charges were dropped. The community gained support from surrounding communities, the Anti Eviction Campaign, Mawubuye and other organizations in the Alarm Network.

Food gardens in Barrydale

Currently many of the residents in the poor community are producing food in their gardens. For these residents the biggest challenge in relation to food production is water. Because the people does not have the rights to use irrigation water in their gardens, they are forced to use drinking water for irrigating their food gardens. The issue of drinking water being the only stable source of water is a major challenge to the efficiency and success of the food gardens. Sustaining a food garden in a semi-arid environment requires relatively large inputs of water and with accessible water being expensive the success of the food gardens to a high degree are dependant on household income. Residents interviewed reported that it costs them about R200 - 300 in monthly water expenses to sustain a food garden. This expense is problematic since households tend to be dependant on the income of only one or a few members and often the household have no income as all the members of the household is unemployed, especially in the off-season. The dependency on income for covering the water expenses is problematic in itself as the food gardens should be viewed as alternatives to food insecurity caused by low and unregular wages. This issue is intensified because the income security is lowest in offseasons and therefore in these periods where the need for alternative sources to nutrition are at their highest, the household food production are under the highest pressure. Eventually the water prices are threatening the success and continuation of the food gardening projects. Residents in Barrydale who are engaged in food gardening reports that these food gardens helps them to make the day and to improve their situation. There is a huge diversity in the vegetables grown in the gardens in the community and some are even growing fruit like peaches. In their gardens the residents are planting potatoes, onions, cabbages, beans, maize, carrots, vinegar etc. The residents interviewed was under the impression that if these gardens are maintained under the right conditions and with sufficient access to water they can have quite high yields. One resident even point out that if everyone were able to have a food garden in their backyards, and the municipality would supply water or at least provide proper

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support for the water ticket, it would sort out the much of the problems related poverty in the community. As one of the interviewed points out; the household food producers also need support in order to gain access to seedlings. Support, however, is not something which the residents in Barrydale seems to receive. Beside from some limited equity shares, that according to the interviewed are so small that they ain't actually good for anything, the municipality do not provide anything for the households in the poor community. It is the experience of the interviewed residents that the municipality does not even want to listen to the people of the community when approached. A factor in raising the level of frustration within the poor community (and probably also intensifying tensions between the social divides in Barrydale) is the experience, that there apparently are different rules applying to the rich community and on the other hand the poor community. In the poor community people have to keep their livestock outside of the city limits and if they don't they will get problems with the local authorities. This however does not seem to be the case in the rich community according to a resident in the township who is a stockholder. Some residents are seeking alternative ways to improve the garden water supply, and reduce costs. For instance one of the residents interviewed in this study is collecting rainwater from the roof of her house and collecting it in oil drums. This has helped her to save money on her water bill. However the area have in the recent years been plagued by extended periods droughts thereby reducing the efficiency of such solutions. If you look at the geography of Barrydale it becomes clear that the poor area not only needs the rights to use irrigation water for their food gardens, but that there also is no infrastructure in place to provide that kind of water supply. This local condition of underdevelopment can be attributed to the historical policies of forced removals, ethnic segregation and spatial confinement of the apartheid system and the current lack of interests from the municipality and relevant departments to engage in improving the living conditions in the poor community. Another thing that becomes apparent when moving around in the poor community is that just beside the community, where people so badly need better and more secure access to water, on the outskirts there is a huge fenced water ground reservoir owned by one of the local commercial farmers (See Appendix B).

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Small-scale farming by members of the poor community

In Barrydale some residents are active in small-scale farming, and Barrydale Small-scale Farmers association has currently about 25 members. Beside from the farmers active in the small-scale farmer association, Mawubuye Land Rights Forum is running a Nursery close to the town. The small-scale farmers are working on commonage land leased from the Municipality for between R3 R5 per hectare. The Nursery is also residing on commonage land leased from the Municipality. The nursery is located on a 2 hectare plot to the west of Barrydale near the river by Route 324. There is an ongoing project to connect the nursery to Barrydale Small-scale Farmers Association, however the problem of water first needs to be sorted out. Because the river dries up in the summer the nursery have no access to water for longer periods of time annually. The nursery is, dependent on a diesel pump in order to pump water which makes its water use quite expensive.

According to the locals the minister of agriculture recently visited Barrydale, and the Department of Agriculture have some projects in the pipeline to build structures in the rivers near Barrydale for the purpose of water catchment. Another government project mentioned by the locals, is a project to build a channel to the community dam used by small scale farmers located to the south west of Barrydale. The purpose of the channel is to catch more rain water from the mountains. These projects has however not been initiated yet.

The area west of Barrydale seems to be the place where the small-scale farmers are experiencing the biggest trouble regarding water access as the irrigation infrastructure is less developed than on the east side of Barrydale. Some of the farmers have no license to pump water from the river even though their farms are residing just beside of the river. For one farmer, who is farming 4 ha west of Barrydale, the problem is that it is too expensive to pump water because the Department of Agriculture issued him an electrical pump which annually cost R17 000 to run. He would like to sell the pump and buy a cheaper diesel driven pump, but the department has not provided him with the papers that states that he is the owner of the electrical pump. Another problem the farmers are facing on both sides of Barrydale is

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that the rivers dry out in the summer. This phenomenon is worst on the western side of Barrydale because this area has the least developed water infrastructure and limited access to reservoirs and dams. However even though the eastern side has better access to irrigation systems and water reservoirs these are also usually drying up in the middle of the sommer in January/February and during droughts as the one that hit the region from March to September 2010. One place on the eastern side there are 6 small-scale farmers, sharing a community dam/reservoir. The water is free but there is to little water for to many farmers. Under normal circumstances there is usually enough water available on the eastern side in the winter. Some of the small-scale stockholders keep their stock together an pay the water bill for their livestock as a collective. The current situation on the small-scale farming activities around Barrydale is that they are water insecure and in a very precarious situation because of changing weather patterns, droughts, insufficient licences regarding water extraction and poorly developed irrigation infrastructure (including reservoirs) available to these activities. Another dimension that adds to the precarious state of these activities is the high cost of water since some stockholders are forced to provide their animals with water from the freshwater supply or because the existing infrastructure is to expensive to use (as with the case of the electrical pump). The current circumstances are threatening the very survival of many of the projects currently undertaken by members of the poor community in Barrydale.

For the farmers who focus on growing vegetables the drought this year has caused some severe problems. They have experienced crop failures due to the lack of water and they are still struggling very hard to recover.

One experience all of the farmers have in common is the lack of interests from (and the failure) of the municipality to live up to its obligations regarding help and support to the small-scale farmers in the area. One of the farmers says that small-scale farmers are alone, and that "the municipality don't do anything to help or assist, they don't come out to see what is going on and they do not want to listen." The farmer suspects the municipality for actually holding the small-scale farmers down. This impression is shared by other farmers, another farmer notes that he think the municipality does not want to help because they are more interested in getting a fat check for themselves. When small-scale farmers has approached

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the municipality to give help and advice related to issues of water usage and small-scale farming, they have been meet with a complete lack of interest from the officials.

For at least one of the small-scale farmers the lack of interest in the well being of small-scale farmers goes beyond the municipality and is also a problem when it comes to the The Department of Agriculture and The Department of Water Affairs. He argues that The Department of Agriculture is supposed to give advice to small-scale farmers, but they are not providing this service. Also according to him they ...don't even see the Water Affairs. He is not the only farmer who has noticed the that the departments are difficult to approach, as another farmer has had problems with attaining a license for pumping water off the river.

According to some of the farmers, the municipality is in charge of funds from Social Development earmarked to provide needed support to small-scale farming activities. In order to gain access to these resources the small-scale farmers need to request for resources to develop the farms or acquire seeds from this fund. However the municipality tend not to respond on these requests. Usually when the farmers request seeds or materials for repairs or upgrades from this funds through the municipality they don't even get a response. One of the farmers put it in this way You get no response on orders, it is a bad municipality that are actually doing nothing for us. We love the ground and we love to work here, but if it is going on like this it is not even worth coming here, we have nothing to put in the ground... ...We want to do something, that is the whole point. We try even with nothing to put in the ground. The funding had not always been placed under the administration of Municipality. Before the funding was administered by the Department of Agriculture and then there were no problems. According to one farmer the problems started when the responsibility of the funding was transferred to the Municipality. One farmer expresses frustration when he on the TV sees that in other provinces the small-scale farmers receive lots of support. While in the Western Cape nothing happens.

If things are to change the farmers agree that the municipality need to involve itself in the community. Farmer gets lease contracts on the commonages, but beside from this the municipality does not provide any kind of support or training and the municipality is not

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interested in working together with the small-scale farmers in order to find solutions. One farmer points out that the farmers need are money to develop the land farmed and water. Up until now many of them has used their own assets, but they are poor people and it is not cheap to get even a small farming project running. One of the interviewed farmers argues that if the municipality continues to be a failure, the funding earmarked for small-scale farming which are currently placed in a Municipality account should be placed somewhere else. A suggested solution is to transfer the control of the funding back to the Department of Agriculture.

According to one of the interviewed the lack of access to markets is also a problem in Barrydale, they need access transport they can afford.

Some of the small-scale farmers on the east side were thinking in moving into lucerne production, because of its many qualities. 3 They think it could be done as a community project and the money generated (R40 per bale) from the harvest could be used to assist the school, the church and to aid the old people in the community. As a part of this project they were also interested letting local commercial farmers help, for example by transferring skills or lending equipment. The same farmers were also interested in getting access to kikuyu seeds because it has deep roots and therefore are more efficient than the grass they are currently letting their stock graze on. They think the small-scale farmers need 50 kilos of Kikuyu and lucerne.

3 According to the small-scale farmers, it grows fast and can be harvested three times a year, after harvest the sheep can grass for a period and then it just need some water to grow again. It is very good as animal feedstock.

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Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

6.2. Community farmers in Riviersonderend

This section is based on a minute from a workshop on commonages, held by TCOE, Mawubuye and Meentboere in Riviersonderend 14 October 2010, where the residents engaging in small-scale farming had the opportunity to tell their story. The poor community in Riviersonderend is another place were the residents are experiencing problems with the municipality in relation to Small-scale farming. In Riviersonderend several members of the poor community are engaged in small-scale farming, mainly in stock holding. About 25 members of the community are organized in Meentboere, an organization of small-scale stockholders. They are mainly holding pigs, goats and cattle. Meentboure activities are located on 2 ha of commonage surrounded by the dumping site, the graveyard, the sewage plant and a commercial farmer. They have been using the land since 1997, but have however never been able to obtain any any official lease on the land. Their access to water is poor: They need transport water km, from where the water-pipe ends, in buckets in order to bring water to their livestock. Beside by the problems of not being able to obtain any official lease on the land, the stockholders have experienced several problems with the municipality. For instance the municipality will not allow the stockholders to put up permanent structures for their livestock on the 2 hectares, and the municipality claim that the land is earmarked for housing, and that it has been sold to a developer (which is illegal, as commonage cannot be sold). Members of Meentboere also report that the municipality is refusing to identify and provide information on municipality commonages. The municipality wants to relocate the Meentboere to 60 hectares of land 8 km away, however this land is not usable and lack necessary infrastructure and access to water. Also, because of the distance from Riviersonderend the land is difficult to access for the small-scale farmers and they can therefore not take proper care of their livestock. It is not a safe place to have animals. They have failed to come up with any plans regarding to how the 60 hectares should be developed. There has also been no effort from the municipality to bring in other government department in order to develop this land. The stockholders report that the municipality is exploiting a local conflict between the commercial stockholders and a local commercial farmer: After the fence around the 2 ha of land used by the stockholders was severely damaged by flooding, they have had difficulties keeping the the cattle on the land. The consequence have been that the cattle has been grazing on the land belonging to the commercial farmer. The outcome

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have been that the commercial farmer is threatening with shooting the cattle. Instead of assisting the stockholders with putting up a new fence or pressurising the commercial farmer to fence his own land, the municipality had responded to the conflict by threatening the stockholders with eviction. Because of the above it is the impression of some of the stockholders that the local government is acting in order to destroy them.

7. Discussion; comparing cases and understanding causes

In this chapter the findings in the case studies will be discussed and compared to each other and to previous research. In relation to food gardening, The problems experienced in Barrydale are very similar to those experienced in the cases from other spaces of poverty documented by TCOE. This indicates that the findings in this study outline general problems to micro- scale household food producers living in poverty throughout Western Cape. However none of the interviewed expressed interests in obtaining more land. This could be because of a blind spot in the interviews where the main focus was on water related problems to micro-scale food production. It could however also be because it is easier to access commonages in Barrydale than in other places. Water is a central problem to household food production in Barrydale. The high cost of the water that is available to the gardens is constantly threatening the success of these activities. The conflict of 2009 indicates that the price levels on basic services, including water is putting the households in the community under severe economic pressure. The households engaging in micro-scale food production are dependant on tap water because the township is excluded from the garden irrigation system in Barrydale and thus spatially underdeveloped compared to the front end. Historically the problems with insufficient water access in the poor community originates from the segregation policies of the apartheid which has defined the path of spatial development and underdevelopment in Barrydale.

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Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

The income dependency in relation to water access is a problem in itself as it hinders the food gardens in being real alternatives to improve food security by reducing the impact of these activities. This problem is intensified in off-seasons when household income is at its lowest. The unsatisfactory level of municipal support and the events during the water conflict indicate a blind spot at the municipality. Either they don't care or they don't understand the challenges which the poor community in Barrydale faces. It was however the wishes of the interviewed that the local government would provide more support. The problems with local government will be discussed further after comparing the cases of commonage small-scale farming in Barrydale and Riviersonderend. One of the interviewed in Barrydale however did try to break the income dependence of her food garden and had been improving it by setting up home made equipment for rainwater catchment. When comparing the Riviersonderend and Barrydale cases of commonage small-scale farming by members of the poor community, it becomes evident that they, even though there are qualitative differences, in general faces several of the same problems in relation to their food production activities. It also become evident that these problems are similar to those experienced by small-scale commonage farmers in the TCOE case studies. However, in Riviersonderend the farmers faces a broader range of challenges and obstacles. In Riviersonderend they have problems of accessing useful land, and they have not been able to obtain official rights to the land they are currently using this does not seem to be a problem in Barrydale. In Barrydale they have access to land, however there was some worries about if the municipality would reclaim the land because they have not been able to develop it or put it into productive use due to the problems faced. In Riviersonderend the a major problem with the land offered by the municipality, is its distance from Riviersonderend making it unusable for the majority of the small farmers. Looking at common problems faced by the small-scale farmers in the two communities water emerges as the dominant obstacle. Both in Riviersonderend and Barrydale there are problems with accessing water, and in both cases the problems stems from either the absence of infrastructure or the insufficient state of it. Another commonality in the cases, seems to be the absence of sufficient support from municipalities and/or departments and even hostility (there are conflicts between the poor communities and the municipalities in both towns). The indifference and at times even hostility of local government towards the people living in spaces of poverty seems to be an underlying cause

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Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

for the absence of support and extension services. This again could be caused by bureaucratic and institutional inefficiencies and misconfigurations within the departments and municipalities or it could be seen as a product of the political economy, ideology and relationships between institutionalised political and commercial social segments of the municipalities. It is however beyond the scope of this study to examine such issues, but it would be issues that in future studies is important examine in depth.4 What can be said, in relation to these cases, is that the indifference, the neglect and hostility of local governmental institutions, is an underlying cause for the problems with accessing water by food producers, both micro- and small-scale, in spaces of poverty. It should also be seen as a cause of the lack of sufficient support and extension services in areas like: fencing, seeds and tools. And could be a contextual framework for understanding why some municipalities tend to offer land that is either marginal, underdeveloped or placed far away from the communities. Thus the behaviour of local governmental institutions should be identified as the primary obstacle to success of these alternative strategies for improving food security.

4 As it could form basis for strategies and tactical choices of residents and social activists living in spaces of poverty when approaching, challenging or addressing local government.

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Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

8. Recommendations
In the following the recommendations on how to improve the food security in spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape will be presented. The goal for the poor communities in poor spaces should be to positively change the conditions wherein small-scale and micro-scale food production can exist within their communities. In the previous chapters it was shown how individual households and commonage projects was struggling against the apathy of the local government and how they lacked access to water and water. In general the food producers knew how to grow crops, vegetables and how to keep livestock, but were under external pressure due to the in difference of the public authorities and the problems of accessing water and land. The recommendations will be on an institutional basis and gravitate around how to put up structures for practical solutions within and between communities by bringing people together.

They (the poor communities) should also aim at helping each other with doing so, for instance by knowledge sharing og by establishing organisational networks for cooperation and resource piling. Knowledge sharing is important, because the level of practical knowledge on food production differs a lot within the community, and especially between the communities. Spreading out knowledge already existing within a community (and to other communities), hereby raising the general level of practical knowledge would help improving the efficiency of the individual households food gardens and commonage projects. Beside from knowledge sharing mutual aid between food producers, and between food produces and the broader community, should be nurtured within and between communities.

Therefore there should be taken initiatives to establish self-organised structures within communities such as Food Garden Forums, where those who engage in food gardening can meet and discuss their experiences, share tools and help each other when necessary on a regular basis. The same kind of structures, for the same purposes, should be established for both individual and collectives of commonage small-scale farmers within the community. There should also be formed Community Forums were the small-scale and micro-scale food producers can engage with other parts of the community, so as to coordinate and cooperate. In

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such forums food support and aid to hungry households could be coordinated as well as aid for the elderly and donations to institutions such as schools and soup kitchens. In relation to community food production, Community Forums could also be used to coordinate help to small-scale farmers from the broader community when needed. and make community projects as the one suggested by small-scale farmers in Barrydale realisable. Where such structures already exists the should be strengthened and broadened. By establishing and strengthening such organisational structures space for social and material development in and between such communities can be opened. The organisational structures, if structured properly can be spaces for democratic empowerment within the communities enabling residents to take decisions and act collectively on issues relevant for the well being of the community.

The following is a suggestion on how to empower the residents and motivate them to establish such structures, and to link those structures in different communities to each other. The suggestion is to use movement building to create space wherein these structures can be realised and bound together. Mawubuye already provide organisational space for building movement and should be used to facilitate the process. A reason for this approach is the apathy of the local governmental institutions, both municipalities and departments, towards the well being of the rural poor documented throughout this study as well as the contraction of agriculture and the casualisation of agricultural labour necessitates an approach which does not rely heavily of official goodwill and job creation in the formal sector. A movement based approach could be a way of improving food security not only though political work. It could also improve food security by creating the structural capacity to do so through collective selforganisation. Because of the above issues (official apathy and a contracting economy) recommendations will be based on building movements in order to facilitate improvements of community food security by communities.

Both this study and previous research should be seen as a clear indication that the problems around water access, basic- and extension services are general problems to most of the spaces of poverty in rural western cape. Therefore the communities living in these spaces has a common ground for raising political claims, they should take advantage on that common

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ground. This common ground could be used to break the often high level of isolation of these spaces. I would recommend to revitalize the campaign around water and basic services, extend it far beyond Barrydale and use it as a foundation for both social mobilisation in spaces of poverty, and as a tool to build links of solidarity and cooperation both within and between these spaces hereby forging the basis for the emergence of a broad social movement of the rural poor.

The movement should initially be organised around the following demands and goals:

First and foremost around the demand that the Municipalities and the Departments starts to engage with the poor community and the small-scale farmers on these issues in a democratic way that are based on the empowerment and active participation of the poor rural community and small-scale farmers and influence, by the communities and small-scale farmers, over the processes of adjusting and implementing those policies.

The movement should forward the demand, that the municipalities should commit themselves to providing the same level of irrigation infrastructure common in the rich, usually white, communities to the coloured and black communities confined in spaces of poverty. This infrastructure is vital to creating the conditions for sustainable food gardens. If these gardens are maintained under the right conditions and with sufficient access to water they will have high yields benefiting the community as a whole. The water for irrigating should be freely accessible for the poor residents.

In the meantime the residents should be provided with sufficient access to water for their food gardens by granting extensive economic support to the water usage of the residents. The amount of water needed to maintain their gardens should be free of charge. This would also create a long-term incentive for the municipalities to deliver the proper infrastructure for irrigating the gardens.

Likewise it should be demanded that the Municipalities and the departments should provide free, equal and sufficient access to water to all poor small-scale farmers working on commonages.

The movement should mobilize in order to force the Municipalities to live up to their responsibilities and begin to use the funding earmarked for developing and supporting the small-scale farmers for the purpose intended.

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Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

Beside of using the social mobilisation to forward demands and pressurise local government and public institutions, the social mobilisation and movement building should be used to form and strengthen local organisational structures both within and especially between the spaces. The movement can be used to facilitate direct links between communities to enhance dialogue, knowledge sharing, coordination and to enhance the process of de-alienating the communities from each other. Establishing inter-community structures could also be used to link commonage farmers and stockholders (both those who farm as individuals and those who farm as a collective) between communities, again enabling cooperation, knowledge sharing but also to open up for the possibility establishing institutional framework for resource and equipment sharing. Such institutional framework could also be used to pile up agricultural output and hereby a tool to reduce the individual costs of accessing the institutions for commercial off-take. Likewise it could be used to enable processing of agricultural output by the communities and hereby creating community control over value-addition, thus leading to higher profits, if markets can be accessed.

These structures could also be used to establish seed-banks and support nurseries in and across communities, hereby broadening the support to micro-scale farming households and small-scale commonage farmers. Knowledge sharing was mentioned earlier, the intercommunity structures established within movements should be used actively to share knowledge concerning micro, small-scale farming and water catchment between communities. They should also be used to gain access to sustainable technologies useful in micro- and small-scale farming under the conditions present in rural Western Cape. Building organisational structures within and between spaces of poverty could also form the basis for establishing distribution networks between communities for the purpose of mutual aid.

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Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

9. Conclusion
This study outlined the current socio-economic conditions wherein spaces of poverty exists in rural Western Cape. It is a context of decreasing employment in an contracting agricultural sector switching towards casual labour. In this context the majority of households in spaces of are food insecure and experience hunger during off-season. Common strategies within these spaces to counter income based food insecurity is to engage in food production, either on household level, as an individual or as a group farming on commonages. The study showed how these alternatives were under a great deal of pressure due to lack of access to land and water and because of the neglect by local government, which seems uninterested in providing any real support for the rural poor. For food gardens the study showed that the main problem was the costs of water, and the lack of economic support or support in form of seedlings. Small-scale farmers experienced a whole range of challenges; from problems of accessing land; long distances to land available; the state or absence of accessible infrastructure on the land available; limited access to water and irrigating infrastructure; and problems with accessing markets. The indifference, the neglect and hostility of local government, is an underlying cause for the problems with accessing water by food producers, both micro- and small-scale, in spaces of poverty. It should also be seen as a cause of the lack of sufficient support and extension services in areas like: fencing, seeds and tools.

Using these findings, recommendation on how communities themselves could improve food insecurity in spaces of poverty was made hereby answering the central question in the study. The recommendations proposed is not a complete institutional framework for solving practical problems regarding micro- and small-scale farming, but a possible path which opens up for opportunities to address the challenges faced in the poor communities in regards to food security. The movement based initiatives would, if realisable, create the context where in the food security of the communities located in rural spaces of poverty could be improved even if the employment situation of rural Western Cape does not improve. Thus they could be a vehicle for social and economic development in the most marginalised spaces in Western Cape driven by themselves.

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Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

10.
CSAAWU DoA FOA IMFed Mawubuye OECD PLAAS TCOE

List of Acronyms and abbreviations

The Commercial Stevadoring Agricultural and Allied Workers Union Department of Agriculture Food and Agriculture Organization (UN) International Metalworkers Federation Mawubuye Land Rights Forum Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies Trust for Community Outreach and Education

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Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

11.

Bibliography
Drimie, Scott and Ruysenaar, Shaun. 2010 The Integrated Food Security Strategy of South Africa: An institutional analysis. Agrekon, 49: 3, 316 337 Aliber, Michael; de Swardt, Cobus; du Toit, Andries; Mbhele, Themba; Mthethwa, Themba. 2005. Trends and Policy Challenges in the Rural Economy. HRSC de Klerk, Mike; Drimie, Scott; Aliber, Michael; Mini, Simphiwe; Mokoena, Reuben; Randela, Rendani; Modiselle, Salome; Vogel, Coleen; de Swardt, Cobus; Kirsten, Johan. 2004. Food Security in South Africa: Key policy issues for the medium term. HSRC Altman, Miriam; Hart, Tim; Jacobs, Peter. 2009 "Food Security in South Africa". HRSC Depardement of Agriculture. 2002. Integrated Food Security Strategy for South Africa FAO. 2001. "State of Food Insecurity 2001". Rome: Food and Agriculture Organisation. Food and Agriculture Organization (UN). 2008. An Introduction to the Basic Concepts of Food Security . Hart, Tim. 2009. "Food Security Definitions, Measurements and Recent Initiatives". HRSC Grundling, Irma. Russel, Bev. Wegrif, Marc. 2005. "Still searching for security. Nkuzi. Provincial Government Western Cape; Provincial Treasury. 2010. "Provincial Economic Review and Outlook 2010" Statistics South Africa. 2005. "Census of Agriculture Provincial Statistics 2002" Statistics South Africa. 2006. "Census of Agriculture Provincial Statistics 2002 - Western Cape" Statistics South Africa. "Census of Commercial Agriculture 2007" Statistics South Africa. 2010. "Quarterly labour force survey 2010" Trust for Outreach and Education. 2009. "We also want land" Tom, Boyce. 2009. Land Reform and Rural Livelihoods in the Breede River Winelands. TCOE Trust for Outreach and Education. 2010. Municipal Commonage, how to access and use it

Agrekon 2010 Aliber et al 2005 Aliber et al 2004

Altman et al 2009 DOA 2002 FAO 2001 FAO 2008 Hart 2009 Nkuzi 2005 PGWC et al 2010 SSA 2005 SSA 2006 SSA 2007 SSA 2010 TCOE 2009a TCOE 2009b TCOE 2010

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Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

12.

Appendix A

Recent developments in the agricultural workforce

The table below shows the changes in the size and composition of the employed labour force in agriculture from 1993 to 2007, both for South Africa nationally and for Western Cape provincially.
Distribution of agricultural employment (full-time, casual and seasonal) in SA and WC 1993 2002 Full-time Casual Casual Total Full-time & Seasonal (Regular) & Seasonal South Africa 647 905 445 360 1 093 265 481 375 459 445 Western Cape 104 646 98 316 202 962 98 207 124 968 Source: SSA 2005, 2006, 2007 2007 Casual Full-time & Seasonal Total 431 664 365 142 796 806 90 943 98 546 189 489

Total 940 820 223 175

From 1993 to 2007 the national amount of workers employed in the commercial agriculture declined from 1 093 265 to 796 806 (SSA 2007). This is a decrease of ~27.1 percent in the size of the employed agricultural workforce. The amount of workers employed nationally has since continued to drop down to about 640 thousand by the end of third quarter 2010 (SSA 2010). This is a decrease of ~19.7 percent between 2007 and 2010. All in all the employed agricultural workforce has dropped ~41.5 percent from 1993 to 2010. The national tendency of declining employment in agriculture does also occur in the Western Cape. In 1993 the total number of paid employees in the Western Cape was 202 962 (SSA 2006). In 2002 the total number of paid employees in the Western Cape was 223 175 (SSA 2006). In 2007 the total number of paid employees in the Western Cape had dropped to 189 489 (SSA 2007). Even though the Western Cape experienced a small growth in agricultural employment from 1993 to 2002 of ~9.2 percent, the total employment declined from 2002 to 2007 with about 14.5 percent. The decline has since then declined to about 136 thousand in 2010 (SSA 2010) indicating a further decline of ~ 28.2 percent. From 1993 to 2010 the total agricultural employment in the Western Cape has declined ~ 33 percent.
Quarterly employment in Agriculture 2008 2010
Q1 2008 South Africa Western Cape 799 181 Q2 2008 790 162 Q3 2008 767 119 Q4 2008 764 131 Q1 2009 738 145 Q2 2009 Thousands 710 146 Source: Quarterly Labour Force Survey 2008 2010 Q3 2009 660 123 Q4 2009 624 128 Q1 2010 658 172 Q2 2010 630 149 Q3 2010 640 136

Between 1993 and 2007 the assembled data indicates that nationally the regular employed workforce decreased by 33.4 percent from 647 905 to 431 664. While the casual and seasonally employed workforce decreased by 18 percent from 445 360 to 365 142. However in the Western Cape the regular employed workforce only decreased by 13.1 percent between 1993 and 2007 and the casual/seasonal workforce remained almost unchanged. The latter however peaked in 2002 and

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Food insecure spaces of poverty in rural Western Cape - 2011

decreased from 124 968 to 98 546 by 2007 (A decrease of 21.1 percent in 5 years). This has created a situation where almost half of the nationally employed agricultural workforce can be considered precarious and more than half of the agricultural workforce employed in the Western Cape can be considered precarious.5

13.

Appendix B

Satellite map over the township in Barrydale.

5 Precarious work is defined by the International Metalworkers Federation as: typically non-permanent, temporary, casual, insecure and contingent. Workers in these jobs are often not covered by labour law and social security protections. Precarious work is caused by employment practices designed to maximize employer profits and flexibility and to shift risks onto workers. In highly-industrialised countries full-time jobs are being replaced by precarious jobs, while in developing countries precarious work has always been the norm... ...Precarious work is an increasing problem on every continent, undermining wages and conditions of work and threatening to divide working people. It flourishes wherever there is a labour surplus and workers are driven to accept work at any cost conditions that exist in many, if not most, parts of the world today (IMFed 2007).

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