Exploring the need and suitability of The green revolution in South Africa

Abstract

South Africa has for years, been a self-sufficient country in terms of its food resources. However, its food security has been noted to be only at national and not household level. In fact, poverty has remained the major characteristic of most rural communities of South Africa. Rural development and poverty alleviation have therefore been the main focus of the nation's democratic government since it first came into power in 1994. At the same time, other challenges such as the ever-growing population have resulted in the national government having a hard time balancing its efforts and resources to meet the needs of the citizens such as human settlements, jobs, infrastructure, etc. The technologies adopted successfully during the Green Revolution era in Asian countries have emerged as a potential vehicle to drive rural development and address the food insecurity challenges experienced, particularly at household levels. As much as these technologies brought great success and economic growth in Asian countries, concerns have been raised about their suitability in South Africa. This paper attempts to highlight and discuss both the merits and demerits of these technologies with specific reference to the country of South Africa. The idea is to debate their suitability in South Africa so that an informed decision on whether the Green Revolution could be the answer to the nation's rural development and household food insecurity challenges can be made.