Chapters from books (Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development)

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/2263/2435

This collection contains some of the full text Chapters from books published by researchers from the Department of Agricultural Economics Extension & Rural Development

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Now showing 1 - 12 of 12

The true cost of food : a preliminary sssessment
(Springer, 2023-01) Hendriks, Sheryl L.; De Groot Ruiz, Adrian; Herrero Acosta, Mario; Baumers, Hans; Galgani, Pietro; Mason-D’Croz, Daniel; Godde, Cecile; Waha, Katharina; Kanidou, Dimitra; Von Braun, Joachim; Benitez, Mauricio; Blanke, Jennifer; Caron, Patrick; Fanzo, Jessica; Greb, Friederike; Haddad, Lawrence; Herforth, Anna; Jordaan, Daniel Du Plessis Scheepers; Masters, William A.; Sadoff, Claudia; Soussana, Jean-François; Tirado, Maria Cristina; Torero, Maximo; Watkins, Matthew; sheryl.hendriks@up.ac.za
Ensuring sustainable food systems requires vastly reducing their environmental and health costs while making healthy and sustainable food affordable to all. One of the central problems of current food systems is that many of the costs of harmful foods are externalized, i.e., are not reflected in market prices. At the same time, the benefits of healthful foods are not appreciated. Due to externalities, sustainable and healthy food is often less affordable to consumers and less profitable for businesses than unsustainable and unhealthy food. Externalities and other market failures lead to unintended consequences for present and future generations, destroying nature and perpetuating social injustices such as underpay for workers, food insecurity, illness, premature death and other harms. We urgently need to address the fundamental causes of these problems. This chapter sets out the results of an analysis to determine the current cost of externalities in food systems and the potential impact of a shift in diets to more healthy and sustainable production and consumption patterns. The current externalities were estimated to be almost double (19.8 trillion USD) the current total global food consumption (9 trillion USD). These externalities accrue from 7 trillion USD (range 4–11) in environmental costs, 11 trillion USD (range 3–39) in costs to human life and 1 trillion USD (range 0.2–1.7) in economic costs. This means that food is roughly a third cheaper than it would be if these externalities were included. More studies are needed to quantify the costs and benefits of food systems that would support a global shift to more sustainable and healthy diets. However, the evidence presented in this chapter points to the urgent need for a system reset to account for these ‘hidden costs’ in food systems and calls for bold actions to redefine the incentives for producing and consuming healthier and more sustainable diets. The first step to correct for these ‘hidden costs’ is to redefine the value of food through true-cost accounting (TCA) so as to address externalities and other market failures. TCA reveals the true value of food by making the benefits of affordable and healthy food visible and revealing the costs of damage to the environment and human health 3.
Policy options for food system transformation in Africa and the role of science, technology and innovation
(Springer, 2023-01) Badiane, Ousmane; Hendriks, Sheryl L.; Glatzel, Katrin; Abdelradi, Fadi; Admassie, Assefa; Adjaye, John Asafu; Ayieko, Miltone; Bekele, Endashaw; Chaibi, Thameur; Hassan, Mohamed Hag Ali; Mbaye, Mame Samba; Mengoub, Fatima Ezzahra; Miano, Douglas W.; Muyonga, John H.; Olofinbiyi, Tolulope; Ramadan, Racha; Sibanda, Simbarashe
As recognized by the Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa – 2024 (STISA-2024), science, technology and innovation (STI) offer many opportunities for addressing the main constraints to embracing transformation in Africa, while important lessons can be learned from successful interventions, including policy and institutional innovations, from those African countries that have already made significant progress towards food system transformation. This chapter identifies opportunities for African countries and the region to take proactive steps to harness the potential of the food and agriculture sector so as to ensure future food and nutrition security by applying STI solutions and by drawing on transformational policy and institutional innovations across the continent. Potential game-changing solutions and innovations for food system transformation serving people and ecology apply to (a) raising production efficiency and restoring and sustainably managing degraded resources; (b) finding innovation in the storage, processing and packaging of foods; (c) improving human nutrition and health; (d) addressing equity and vulnerability at the community and ecosystem levels; and (e) establishing preparedness and accountability systems. To be effective in these areas will require institutional coordination; clear, food safety and health-conscious regulatory environments; greater and timely access to information; and transparent monitoring and accountability systems.
Ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all through the transformation of food systems
(Springer, 2023-01) Hendriks, Sheryl L.; Soussana, Jean-François; Cole, Martin; Kambugu, Andrew; Zilberman, David; sheryl.hendriks@up.ac.za
Action Track 1 of the Food Systems Summit offers an opportunity to bring together the crucial elements of food safety, nutrition, poverty and inequalities in the framework of food systems within the context of climate and environmental change to ensure that all people have access to a safe and nutritious diet. Achieving Action Track 1’s goal is essential to achieving the goals of the other Action Tracks. With less than a decade left to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), most countries are not on a course to hit either the World Health Organisation’s nutrition targets or the SDG 2 targets. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated malnutrition and highlighted the need for food safety. The pandemic has also exposed the deep inequalities in both food systems and societies as a whole. Nonetheless, future food systems can address many of these failings and ensure safe and nutritious food for all. However, structural change is necessary to address the socio-economic drivers behind malnutrition, inequalities and the climate and environmental impacts of food. Adopting a whole-system approach in policy, research and monitoring and evaluation is crucial for managing trade-off and externalities from farm-level to national scales and across multiple sectors and agencies. Supply chain failures will need to be overcome and technology solutions adopted and adapted to specific contexts. A transformation of food systems requires coordinating changes in supply and demand in differentiated ways across world regions: bridging yield gaps and improving livestock feed conversion, largely through agro-ecological practices, deploying soil carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas mitigation at scale, and reducing food loss and waste, as well as addressing over-nourishment and shifting the diets of wealthy populations. The sustainability of global food systems also requires halting the expansion of agriculture into fragile ecosystems, while restoring degraded forests, fisheries, rangelands, peatlands and wetlands. Shifting to more sustainable consumption and production patterns within planetary boundaries will require efforts to influence food demand and diets, diversify food systems, and develop careful land-use planning and management. Integrative policies need to ensure that food prices reflect real costs (including major externalities caused by climate change, land degradation and biodiversity loss, and the public health impacts of malnutrition), reduce food waste and, at the same time, ensure the affordability of safe and healthy food and decent incomes and wages for farmers and food system workers. The harnessing of science and technology solutions and the sharing of actionable knowledge with all players in the food system offer many opportunities. Greater coordination of food system stakeholders is crucial for greater inclusion, greater transparency and more accountability. Sharing lessons and experiences will foster adaptive learning and responsive actions. Careful consideration of the trade-offs, externalities and costs of not acting is needed to ensure that the changes we make benefit all, and especially the most vulnerable in society.
Healthy diet : a definition for the United Nations Food Systems Summit 2021
(Springer, 2023-01) Neufeld, Lynnette M.; Hendriks, Sheryl L.; Hugas, Marta
The aim of this chapter is to propose a definition of “healthy diets” and provide related evidence, thus permitting the alignment of terminology for the Food Systems Summit and beyond. Diets are combinations of foods and beverages (referred to as foods hereafter, for simplicity) consumed by individuals. However, the specific combination of foods that make up healthy diets is context-specific and depends on many cultural, economic, and other factors. We provide a definition and overview of approaches that have been used to translate this into food-based recommendations. We also provide a brief review highlighting evidence, gaps and controversies related to defining healthy diets. The evidence for potential solutions to making healthy diets more available, affordable, and their production environmentally sustainable is the subject of much literature (Herforth 2020; Chaudhary et al. 2018; Smetana et al. 2019; Badiane and Makombe 2020; Program of Accompanying Research for Agricultural Innovation 2020), and is not discussed here in detail.
The cost and affordability of preparing a basic meal around the world
(Springer, 2023-01) Masters, William A.; Martinez, Elena M.; Greb, Friederike; Herforth, Anna; Hendriks, Sheryl L.
All countries have a rising burden of diet-related disease from the consumption of unhealthy foods. About three billion people around the world cannot afford the diverse foods needed for a healthy diet. This chapter aims to extend previous work on diet cost and affordability to address the hidden costs of meal preparation inside the home. Costs of a basic meal based on market prices for the most affordable items are estimated in 168 countries. Also, the hidden costs of meal preparation are considered, taking account of environmental or social externalities from the production and distribution of food, as well as the health externalities involved in food consumption. The data shown here reveal that even the simple raw ingredients for a basic plate are often unaffordable for the poorest, and the added cost of time and fuel can make such meals prohibitively expensive. Results suggest two main avenues for policy action. First, governments should use the information on the least costly way to meet dietary standards to inform poverty lines and provide targeted assistance so as to ensure that citizens can acquire safe and nutritious items in sufficient quantities for an active and healthy life, using locale-appropriate safety nets. Second, food policies should recognize the hidden costs of meal preparation that often put healthier, more sustainable diets out of reach. Overcoming the hidden barriers to preparation of healthy meals will require support for helpful forms of food processing that preserve or enhance nutritional values, while taking action to limit potentially harmful forms of ultra-processing associated with diet-related disease. Food-based safety nets and improvements in the food environment can make healthy diets affordable for all people at all times, to help every country reach global development goals.
The potential for creating additional rural livelihoods in agriculture and the rural non-farm sector in semi-arid areas : a case study in the Northern Province
(Indicator Press, 1996-12) Lipton, Michael; De Klerk, Mike; Lipton, Merle; johann.kirsten@up.ac.za; Kirsten, Johann F.
The aim of the chapter is to estimate the potential for creating additional livelihoods in a typical semi-arid area under various assumptions about farm activities, farm size and technology. The perception that agriculture in semi-arid areas has limited potential to create additional livelihoods was confirmed by the results of the research. In acknowledging that rural households earn income from other sources than agriculture, attention was paid to the important contribution of rural non-farm enterprises.
Agricultural policy : undoing the legacy of the past
(MacMillan Press Ltd, 2000) Vink, Nick; Van Zyl, Johan; Thirtle, Colin G., 1944-; Van Zyl, Johan; Vink, Nick; johann.kirsten@up.ac.za; Kirsten, Johann F.
In this chapter the history of the agricultural sector from the early part of the twentieth century up to the period leading to the 1994 election is described. Three trends are discussed. First, a period of territorial and racial segregation at the beginning of the century; the second, a period of modernization of white agriculture and the last trend was the reversal of the distortionary policies of the 1960's and 1970's. Particular attention is paid to the changes in agricultural policy during the 1980's. History has shown that neither racial discrimination nor price distortions in the South African agriculture could be sustained, but despite the changes in policy and legislature not much has changed in terms of improved equality and living conditions for the rural poor.
Agricultural and rural development
(WR Publications, 1993) Van Zyl, Johan; Nomvete, Bax D.; johann.kirsten@up.ac.za; Kirsten, Johann F.
These papers review the structure and characteristics of agriculture in South Africa, the position of blacks in the sector, access to and utilisation of land and other resources by white and black South Africans, the scope of agriculture to make a contribution to the alleviation of poverty, and measures that would enhance effective black participation and performance in the sector. Specific research topics are identified.
Market liberalization in South African agriculture : did it lead to increased efficiency in the carbohydrate market?
(Lit Verlag, 1996) Sartorius von Bach, Helmke Jens; Van Zyl, Johan; Van Schalkwyk, Herman Daniel; Van Rooyen, Johan; Mudimu, Godfrey D.; Mabeza-Chimedza, Ruvimbo; Kirsten, Johann F.
The first chapter provides a brief look at the extent of market liberalization in the South African agricultural sector. It shows which events led to the abolishment and deregulation of a number of marketing schemes under the Marketing Act. The second chapter discusses the results of the elimination of black commercial agriculture on the development of a viable employment-intensive rural economy. It is essential to restructure the rural economy in order to increase incomes for the existing population and create employment for a considerable share of the future population. It is concluded that market assisted approaches have possibilities for playing a major role in any rural restructuring effort in South Africa.
South Africa
(Edward Elgar Publishing Ltd, 2004) Vink, Nick; Williams, Gavin; Anderson, Kym; johann.kirsten@up.ac.za; Kirsten, Johann F.
This chapter outlines the wine industry in South Africa in terms of historical legacies and current production features. It examines how the political, social and economic changes in South Africa affect the situation and future of wine farmers and those involved in the futher processing, distribution and marketing of wine.
The farmer support programme in KaNgwane
(Development Bank of Southern Africa, 1995) Sartorius von Bach, Helmke Jens; Van Zyl, Johan; Singini, Richard E.; Van Rooyen, Johan; johann.kirsten@up.ac.za; Kirsten, Johann F.
These three chapters comprise of the interim evaluation results of the Farmer Support Programmes implemented by the Development Bank of Southern Africa. Three of the former homeland areas of South Africa (KaNgwane, Venda and Lebowa) are discussed.
South Africa: coping with structural changes
(International Food Policy Research Institute, 2006) Liebenberg, Frikkie; Pardey, Philip G.; Alston, Julian M.; Piggott, Roley R.; johann.kirsten@up.ac.za; Kirsten, Johann F.
This chapter presents South Africa's agricultural research and development policy within the historical framework of structural, institutional and political changes that took place during the 20th century. A brief overview of the agricultural sector and a review of the policy changes is provided to highlight the increased flexibility in input substitution, to which the research system has likely contributed. Thereafter an overview is provided of the overall science and technology policy and a detailed account of agricultural R&D policy focusing on the institutional structure, priority setting, sources of support, and agricultural R&D providers. The chapter concludes by discussing major lessons learned and summarizing the debate on a more sustainable national agricultural research system for the future.

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