Addressing Food Insecurity in South Africa: Insights from TERRAGRN’s Feasibility Study

At TERRAGRN , we are deeply committed to finding long-term, scalable solutions to address food insecurity in South Africa. Our recent feasibility study, funded through grant from Subnational Climate Fund (SCF) and managed by Catalytic Finance Foundation , focused on Mpumalanga and Limpopo, has provided valuable insights into how regenerative agroforestry and innovative farming solutions can help transform rural communities, smallholder livelihoods, and contribute to greater food security.

Our study factored in a range of inputs including:?

• literature reviews from Government and academic/ scientific studies
• interviews with experts from farming associations, food aggregators, commercial banks, skill academies, etc.
• workshops?with academics, NGOs, and corporates
• data-driven questionnaires?and?interviews?with smallholder farmers in both Mpumalanga and Limpopo.

The issue of food insecurity is multifaceted. As reported,?over 8 million people?in South Africa are food insecure, with many relying on subsistence farming. Smallholder farmers—who make up around?70% of South Africa’s agricultural workforce—often live on the brink of poverty, unable to generate sufficient income from farming to sustain their families or invest in their farms for increased productivity. This cycle of low production and limited income further exacerbates food insecurity.

Through this process, we identified a few implementable solutions at scale that are essential to improving smallholder livelihoods and food security in Mpumalanga and Limpopo provinces. These included adopting regenerative agricultural practices, deploying multi-crop, multi-harvest models using irrigation, mechanisation, and growing undercover, storage and cold chain solutions, enabling market access, and most critically enabling financing for smallholder infrastructure.

The study recommends the need to pilot these solutions with smallholders, test their viability, and create a blueprint for scaling these solutions across South Africa. By empowering smallholder farmers with the right tools, resources, and market access, we can break the cycle of poverty, increase production, and ultimately create more resilient, self-sustaining communities.

Together, we can transform the future of agriculture in South Africa and take meaningful steps towards tackling food insecurity.

#FoodSecurity #RegenerativeFarming #Agroforestry #SustainableAgriculture #SouthAfrica #SmallholderFarmers #RuralDevelopment #TERRAGRN Gold Standard Pegasus Capital IUCN