“It’s in your hands now”: with this sentence, Nelson Mandela passed on his legacy to make a difference in the world to a new generation at his 90th birthday. One year later, the United Nations General Assembly, dedicated his birthday, 18 July, as Nelson Mandela Day, and since then every year this day honours the work of the former South African president and human rights activist. And, according to the Nelson Mandela Foundation the best way to honour Mandela’s work is to take action. The idea is that each person or a group takes at least 67 minutes to create an action that helps others and promotes change.

Tackling food security in South Africa

Besides Education & literacy, Shelter & infrastructure and Service & volunteerism, food security is one of the Mandela Day themes. South Africa can be considered a ‘food-secure’ nation, as according to an Oxfam report it produces enough calories to feed its 53 million people. However, the number hides inequalities in the access to food, more than half of the population lives in precarious circumstances, which leaves them at the risk of hunger. One out of four South Africans actually suffers hunger on a regular basis. A high unemployment rate of 25%, low household incomes, low household food production, and rising food prices are among the reasons. Yet again, 30% of food production or 9 million tonnes of food are wasted every year in the food chains.

Taking Mandela day a step further and working on it on a daily basis

To tackle the challenge of food security, SEED South Africa Winners are going beyond taking 67 minutes on Mandela Day; they have built their business model around enabling change in their societies on a daily basis.

IMAI Farming Cooperative: Saving food surpluses

The IMAI Farming Cooperative has developed a sustainable business plan that processes surplus vegetables into the value-added product “achar.” One of the main challenges smallholder farmers face is to bring their food to the markets, at the right time. The shared agro-processing plant and sale of “achar” creates a direct link between local farmers and customers and allows farmers to turn surplus vegetables into a valuable produce stabilizing their source of income. In Limpopo Province, where IMAI Farming is active, 90% of the population lives in rural areas (Limpopo Department of Agriculture), but 70% of agricultural land, often prime land, is in the hands of large-scale farmers (Food Security). Consequently, providing employment and income opportunities in the agricultural sector has a large impact on food security in the area. In total, the enterprise has 21 workers, 52% of which are female, contributing to poverty alleviation, the reuse of raw materials, and organic farming.

Growing the Future: Everyone can be a farmer

Growing the Future promotes food security by disseminating a three-step gardening programme for unemployed people, particularly women, to render their own organic and nutritious food production. In the first step, unemployed beneficiaries receive the inputs and training on farming and beekeeping. Each gardener receives a kit using wicking beds to grow to produce in areas with poor soil quality. In the second step, training in a community garden centre is set up with the aim of providing support and market access to new gardeners. In the third step, the new gardeners can then acquire land to become smallholder farmers. The enterprise enables parts of the populations vulnerable to food security to produce part of their own food, and in addition to become entrepreneurial and gain income from food production. Other members of the local community also benefit from the variety of foods offered and less dependence on food imports.

Waste to Food: Recycling food waste

Waste to Food shows that food security cannot only be tackled in rural areas. The enterprise creates compost with commercial value through recycling food waste. Cape Town produces more than 50 tonnes of commercial food waste per day, part of this is collected by the enterprise’s partners from retailers. The enterprise then pre-composts the material, later converting it to high-quality compost. The compost can be used as soil amendment, organic fertilizer, as well as a plant pest and disease control. The organic nature of the product is a viable alternative to chemical fertilizers, which can be damaging to the environment and human health. Thus, Waste to Food contributes to establishing a sustainable livelihood alternative through increasing access to organic farming and gardening products, while reducing CO2 emissions and preventing food from going to waste.

What are you doing to make the world a better place; what are you doing to make every day a Mandela Day?

The call for action on Mandela Day is not limited to food security, nor is it limited to South Africa. On Mandela Day, the Nelson Mandela foundation calls on everyone to make their contribution, how small it might be. One source of inspiration can be the 175 SEED Winners supported by SEED in the last 10 years, and the 2015 SEED Winners to be announced at the SEED Africa Symposium, 9-10 September in Nairobi, Kenya.

To learn more about IMAI Farming and other SEED Winners read the case studies and visit our virtual exhibition.