The Gauteng Department of Agriculture and Rural Development (GDARD) Homestead Food Garden (HFG) project scooped the first prize in the Premiers Service Excellence Awards. The project beat all the nominees in the Environmental Sustainability Award sub category.
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa states that every citizen has the right to access to sufficient food and water, and that “the state must by legislation and other measures within its available resources, avail to progressive realization of the right to sufficient food (clause 27(1)(b))”
According to Statistics South Africa’s 2003 General Household Survey, hunger in Gauteng in 2002 was at 6.8%. This led to Social Security Service recipients rising from 5.6% in 2002 to 10.7% in 2003 with unemployment increasing to 27%(GHS,2003).
The HFG Project was launched by providing 4000 vegetable production packs to Social Development’s Food Emergency Scheme beneficiaries in 2003. This initiative was borne out of a need to restore the communities’ independence and to enable them to reclaim their dignity by producing their own food.
The department’s agricultural advisors provide training to enable families and communities to grow diverse, nutritious food using a door-sized area or any small space in their yards.
The HFG encourages Gauteng citizens to grow vegetable gardens in their backyards for self-sustenance, availability and access to healthy meals even after food parcels had run out.
The GDARD head of department Ms Matilda Gasela congratulated team’s approach to empowering communities and being rewarded for the impact they made to Gauteng communities. “I appreciate that this dedicated team of experts took it upon themselves to adopt and implement the Chinese proverb which reminds us that by giving a man a fish, you feed him for a day, teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.”
The 2002-2017 general Household survey reveals that although unemployment increased from 22.89% in 1994 to 27% in 2017 – the number of households vulnerable to hunger in the country decreased. This could be attributed to the increase in social grants recipients, food parcels and homestead food gardens.
Almost 81 942 vegetable production packs have been provided to mitigate hunger and poverty at household level through the HFG Project since 2009.
