Busting hunger through research

Abstract

Smallholder farming Statistics show that 2,3 million households in South Africa are not able to meet their daily food requirements. In addition, about half of the country’s population lives on R20 or less a day. “We do not realise the extent to which people in South Africa are going hungry,” says Marna de Lange, who was part of the WRC project team. She was speaking at a recent workshop to introduce the new approach to other countries within the Southern African Developing Community. The workshop was organised jointly by WRC, the Department of Agriculture and Southern African Regional Irrigation Association. De Lange went on to explain that chronic hunger and malnutrition has far reaching effects. “When a child is malnourished, especially during the pre-school phase, it is not only his height and weight that are affected. It does irreversible damage to his intellectual development. Add to this increased potential for infection and you end up with an adult that will have lower earnings during his lifetime than someone who is not malnourished.

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