Agriculture, Economic Development and Tourism

1. The Department’s Food Security sub-programme supports vulnerable communities and households with the means to produce own food. These interventions take the form of community or school food gardens as well as household food gardens aimed at promoting food security food and nutrition though own production.  In some instances, poultry production is considered a viable option given the challenges regarding land and water availability. We have also launched the one home one garden initiative to encourage own food production in affected communities, and this is also anchored by skills training which is the foundation for the suitability of the programme.

During the 2024/2025 financial year, we have supported 126 community gardens, 36 school gardens and 3 111 households with the means to produce own food.  The Department also introduced vertical gardening at the Hands and Feet project in the Cape Metropole, as an innovation within the food security space to support people living with disabilities. This was undertaken in partnership with Urban Organics NGO.

However, it must be noted that South Africa’s food insecurity challenges are not tied to lack of production but is rather an access issue due to the levels of unemployment which limits access to already available food. It is for this reason that the Western Cape Government’s Growth for Jobs strategy had set an ambitious target for growth and jobs and remains an apex priority.

2. Our food garden programme is implemented across the province, although the Cape takes a bigger share, largely due to the monetised nature of access in the urban setting. Please see below annexures A (household food gardens) and B (community and school project) and the GIS map annexure C showing where these projects are located.

c)      Out of the 3273 projects implemented last year, the spread is reflected in the table below, and summarised as follows:

          Rural - 58%

          Urban - 42%