Gauteng looks at climate issues

Urban agriculture is one way of working to combat climate change, and at the same time keep food prices down and ensure food security.
GROWING food nearer to where it will be eaten was suggested as a possible way to ensure food security and cut the carbon emissions that come with transporting food long distances from farm to consumer.

A rooftop garden in the Joburg CBDA rooftop garden in the Joburg CBDThe idea was mooted by the MEC for agriculture and rural development, Nandi Mayathula-Khoza, who was tabling Gauteng’s Response Strategy on Climate Change on 1 December. The tabling coincided with COP 17, the 17th annual Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, which is taking place in Durban.

Mayathula-Khoza alluded to projects such rooftop gardening, which is fast becoming a trend in the inner city of Johannesburg, as a solution to urban agriculture. If such practices could be expanded, they would be able to feed more people in largely crowded urban areas such as Joburg’s CBD.

Growing food nearer to where people live would also result in reduced traffic, leading to less carbon emissions. In most cases, food was transported long distances by huge trucks, which emitted large amounts of smoke, polluting the atmosphere.

Responding to a question about the lack of agricultural land in Gauteng, Mayathula-Khoza said it was important to preserve agricultural land so that the province would be able to continue producing its own food. “We have been talking to famers about adopting smart agricultural practices to ensure that the land remains in a good condition for ploughing.”

Food price increase
This was also aimed at preventing an increase in food prices, caused by constant rises in the price of fuel. According to the response strategy, vegetables such as maize and samp were being produced in large quantities in Gauteng.

In another drive to preserve land, the province had encouraged the farming community to adapt to and mitigate the effects of climate change by promoting organic farming. Organic farming relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests.

Mayathula-Khoza also stressed the importance of community involvement in the dialogue about climate change. In ensuring this, Gauteng had engaged various organisations, including civil society, business, academics and universities on finding solutions to achieving the common goal of saving the planet.

“We have committed ourselves as the provincial government working with our people to two comprehensive approaches to address the challenges of climate change.”

These were:

Adaptation – looking at how we lived with climate change through management of risk and reduction of vulnerability; and
Mitigation – contributing to the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.
Temperature increase
“In this regard, we support our national government’s position and targets on legally binding international agreements that will limit the average global temperature,” she said.

During the consultations, residents said the province should strike a balance between the two approaches to ensure the eradication of poverty, creation of green jobs, and ensuring sustainability, according to Mayathula-Khoza.

The problem statement on the response strategy indicated that in the long term, Gauteng’s mean annual temperature was projected to rise by two to three degrees Celsius by 2050 and three to six degrees Celsius by 2090. “We are expected to have zero to 40 percent increases in rainfall by the 2050s, and anything from 20 percent to more than 60 percent increase by 2090s.”

The strategy also reported that evaporation of water from dams and soil in Gauteng was expected to increase to 5 percent to 10 percent by the 2050s; and 15 percent to 25 percent by the 2090s.

In response to water scarcity, farmers were encouraged to conserve water by using grey water technology, which was the reuse of water used for domestic activities such as laundry, dishwashing and bathing.