National context of food security and agriculture in South Africa
- The Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development (DALRRD) was allocated R16.7 billion in 2024/25, a decrease of R546 million from R17.2 billion in 2023/24 and constituting 0.7% of the consolidated expenditure bill of R2.37 trillion.
- According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), despite Africa’s agricultural potential, 282 million people remain under-nourished and over a billion lack access to healthy diets. The crisis has escalated since the Covid-19 pandemic, with the number of hungry people rising by 57 million.
- The Human Sciences Research Council’s (HSRC) 2023 National Food and Nutrition Security Survey revealed that only 36% of South African households were food secure, with the remaining 64% being food insecure. Further, the national prevalence of overall stunting, wasting and underweight in children aged 0 to 5 years were 29%, 5% and 8% respectively.
- UNICEF’s 2024 Child Nutrition Report called Child Food Poverty: Nutrition deprivation in early childhood reveals that South Africa is one of 20 countries that account for 65% of all children living in severe child food poverty globally, with 23% of children in South Africa at risk of life-threatening malnutrition and related health complications.
- The Shoprite South African Food Security Index 2024, which measures four dimensions of food security – availability, access, utilisation and stability – found that food insecurity in South Africa is at its highest levels in over a decade. While South Africa scored 64.9 on the index in 2019, this number dropped to 45.3 in 2023 (zero indicates severe food insecurity).
- The Agriculture and Agro-processing Master Plan (AAMP), launched in May 2022, aims to foster agricultural development and transformation and increase food security in South Africa. In 2024, the AAMP entered its implementation phase with various projects initiated, focusing on infrastructure development, farmer support and agro-processing.
- The DALRRD has invested almost R58 billion in settled land claims, grants and financial compensation between 1998 and March 2024. Through this restitution process, a total of 376 976 individuals and communities have benefited, with 3.8 million hectares of land returned to beneficiaries.
Overview of CSI spend
Food security and agriculture were supported by 67% of companies and received 11% of average CSI expenditure.

Type of intervention
Average % CSI food security and agriculture spend 2024 n=36
41% Food relief/feeding schemes
27% Survivalist farming
21% Small-scale farming/commercial agriculture
7% Infrastructure, facilities and equipment
4% Other
- Food relief and feeding schemes received just over two-fifths (41%) of average CSI spend in the food and agriculture sector, a decline from 50% in 2023 and a peak of 63% in 2021, when the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated food security issues.
- Survivalist/subsistence farming received the second largest portion of funding in this sector (27%), a notable increase from 19% in 2023.
- Average CSI spend on small-scale farming/commercial agriculture increased significantly from 8% in 2023 to 21% in 2024.
Read more about food security and agriculture:
- Read the case study Collaborating to feed South Africa | Southern Africa Food Lab.
Source: The original version of this article was published in the Trialogue Business in Society Handbook 2024 (27th edition).