Water Wheel November/December 2019

Abstract

Future-proofing food security in a hotter, drier world We are in the middle of a South African heatwave. The Northern Hemisphere has just completed a very uncomfortable summer, with July 2019 being the hottest July in recorded history. The start of the Southern Hemisphere spring appears to be completing the 2019 weather cycle in competition with the North – promising a hot, dry summer with intervals of short, intense rainfall spells. In other words, more threats to our food security. In the midst of this, World Food Day 2019, celebrated on 15 October, continued to leave us uncomfortable. While considerable progress has been made in various parts of the world, we still have 821 million people that suffer from chronic undernourishment. That’s more than 10% of the world’s population. The number for South Africa, according to Statistics South Africa, is 6.8 million people that are chronically hungry, that is going to bed on an empty stomach daily. In this mix are the 500 000 households with children that are subject to these same hunger pangs.

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