Madam Chair, of the 852 million people worldwide suffering from hunger, 796 million live in countries of the developing world and 315 million of those - that is 37% - live in sub-Saharan Africa. Worldwide, half of all people suffering from hunger live in rural areas. This means that the greatest effort to end hunger and poverty should be in the rural areas.
The adoption of the Millennium Development Goals by many governments of developing and developed countries is enough evidence of the common agreement on the urgency to end world poverty and hunger. At the global level, there have been policy declarations and policy initiatives towards this.
The key to solving this crisis lies in unlocking the full potential of rural economies. Many countries have initiated plans to do just that. Some of these plans include poverty reduction strategies, initiatives on HIV/Aids and rural development plans. The private sector and NGOs have also contributed to overcoming this challenge.
But more still needs to be done to improve the lives of poor people in rural areas. Difficulties in the agricultural sector across the world have compounded this crisis. Agriculture has experienced a number of damaging shocks in recent years, such as record high oil prices, commodity price spikes, challenging trade restrictions and, of course, the global economic downturn. Although the world produces more than enough food to feed its population, many people still cannot gain access to food markets or afford to buy food. The questions are: What are the implications for South Africa? Is our government able and willing to take note of the situation?
According to us, we need to drive expansion in our agricultural sector for the benefit of all our people. By developing our rural economies, we can create new jobs and spread wealth more equitably.
Successful land reform has certainly been one of the largest challenges in agricultural development. We need to have a successful land reform policy. We need to focus on two objectives in this regard, namely equity and productivity, and we need to balance these two objectives responsibly. It is not enough just to transfer land. We need to make sure that those farmers have the support, knowledge and capital necessary to be successful.
The challenge to be met is therefore to arrange land and agricultural matters in such a way that both equity and productivity are improved. This will contribute to real redress in rural areas, redistribution, improving living standards and, importantly, food security and economic growth. We need to do the following to balance equity and productivity: Firstly, we must have a clear policy framework to induce confidence and enhance investment in the sector - and threats to nationalise land and limit farm sizes destroy the needed confidence.
Secondly, the admitted failure of the restitution programme to maintain production needs a new approach. We must overhaul our land reform programme to ensure that emerging farmers have adequate support. We need to identify people with an interest in farming and have proper partnership agreements between experienced and new farmers.
Thirdly, new farm owners should have freehold title ownership to unlock the economic potential of their assets. Also, the implementation of a disaster risk management system with adequate funding to manage droughts, floods and fire damages is now long overdue.
There is a need for more resources to be allocated to research and infrastructure development, and that will assist in agricultural development.
Lastly, the high crime rate in rural areas needs to be addressed. Farmers and their workers remain soft targets and millions of rands are lost annually through theft.
In conclusion, affordable food is of vital importance to reduce hunger in South Africa. The expertise of our commercial sector provides a platform for viable development. We should harness the expertise, as well as our natural resources and the ingenuity of all our people to reach our Millennium Development Goals. [Applause.]