South Africa has a competitive and viable food production sector which enables the country to be a consistent net exporter of agricultural products. Lately, the business and labour organisations have raised concerns that the government's intention to implement the carbon tax policy will affect the food supply, subsequently exacerbating the unemployment and food insecurity in the country. Carbon tax is one of the policy tools to be implemented in order to reduce the growing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions thus helping the government meets its Paris Agreement commitments. South Africa's National Treasury released a second draft of the carbon tax bill in 2017, which takes into account the concerns raised by different organisations. In this paper, we evaluate the potential impact of the carbon tax policy on the food sector using a computable general equilibrium (CGE) model. The results show that the carbon tax is an effective policy tool to mitigate emissions, as they decline by 33 percent relative to the baseline by 2035. This also leads to a welfare loss of R98.326 billion as the country transform into a green economy. While sectors such as transport, steel and coal-generated electricity experiences significant output decline, the food sector shows improvements in terms of production and employment when the carbon tax is implemented. The positive effects on the food sector suggests that the policy makers have designed a plausible environmental protection policy that cushion the food supply against any expected negative effects.

Background Very little has been researched about the efficacy, effectiveness, feasibility, sustainability and impact of food-based approaches on the diets and nutritional status of populations at risk of hunger and food insecurity. This study contributes knowledge about the impact of food-based approaches on the diets of populations at risk of hunger and food insecurity in four of the poorest rural communities in South Africa. The study investigated the consumption and production patterns of rural households (278 in summer and 280 in winter) in four sites in the poorest municipalities in South Africa. Methods A multistage stratified random sampling technique was applied to identify the communities and sample households for the quantitative survey and qualitative assessments. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected between 2013 and 2015 through focus group discussions (FGDs), key informant interviews and the two-round panel survey to cover both the summer and winter seasons at each site. Results Home gardening led to a significant positive increase in the consumption of white roots and tubers, dark green leafy vegetables, orange-coloured fruit and other fruit in the 24 h prior to the survey. Participation in a community garden led to significant increases in the consumption of dark green leafy vegetables and other vegetables. School gardening did not demonstrate any statistical relationships with the consumption of foods from the crop-related food groups. Crop production improved dietary diversity. Selling produce and irrigation showed a stronger improvement in dietary diversity. Seasonality affected the availability of fresh fruit and vegetables for home consumption in winter. Conclusions Producing beyond that solely for home consumption has greater benefits for dietary diversity and a consumption-smoothing effect during the post-harvest period. Politicians and the scientific community should recognise the role that household and small-scale crop production plays in supporting household consumption and the provision of essential micronutrients despite constraints and disincentives. Production and education programmes should focus on strengthening existing good consumption patterns and promoting the consumption of foods that can improve dietary diversity.

This article aims to estimate the effects of ICT intensity on labor productivity, employment and output of agro-processing industries. To achieve this, the ICT intensity index is applied to rank industries into 'more ICT-intensive' and 'less ICT-intensive' groups. Thereafter, the annual growth rates of labor productivity, employment and output were calculated. Ultimately, the effects of ICT intensity were examined using Pooled Mean Group estimation, the Toda and Yamamoto Granger Non-Causality Test, and the Impulse Response Function and Variance Decomposition analyses. The findings suggest that ICT intensity yields higher positive and significant effects on the growth of the more ICT-intensive industries. Evidence of a causal relationship was detected for the more ICT-intensive industries. The findings further proved that ICT intensity contributed more to the forecast error variance in the growth of the more ICT-intensive industries. Overall, this article provides evidence of ICT-led growth for industries that use ICT most intensively.

The paper serves to examine whether the growth in labour productivity (LP) in the manufacturing sector following policy reforms after democracy can be attributed to ICT. To achieve this, we examine the link

Amidst conflicting narratives in development circles regarding the drive for nutrition-sensitive agriculture and the displacement of household production by supermarket penetration into deep rural areas, little is documented about the design of nutrition-sensitive agricultural programmes in the context of changing food systems. This is the first comparative assessment of the production and consumption patterns of South Africa’s poorest rural households. The study set out to identify programme elements necessary to improve nutrition outcomes. The poorest communities in four provinces were identified and surveyed using an extensive production and consumption survey. The survey was conducted in summer and winter for each community to capture seasonal differences. A total of 278 households were interviewed in summer and 280 in winter at the four sites. Even though most foods were purchased, crop production (beyond maize production) improved dietary diversity but selling produce and the use of irrigation had led to a stronger improvement. Seasonality affected availability of fresh fruit and vegetables for home consumption in winter, compromising nutrition. This shows a more positive influence of cropping on the consumption of fruit and vegetables in winter than in summer. This result was not expected, as the number of crops that can produce edible portions in winter is rather limited. Some crops such as beans are produced in summer and preserved (dried) for consumption in winter. The cultural preference is for dried beans rather than fresh green beans. Crops such as pumpkin and butternut are also stored for consumption later. Another explanation may be that savings from consumption in summer were used to purchasing these foods in winter, post-harvest. This was certainly true for households engaged in farmland cultivation (larger scale production) where consumption patterns improved in winter, post-harvesting of the main crops. However, farmland cultivation was only carried out under irrigated conditions. The study contributes knowledge about the impact of food-based approaches on the diets of populations at risk of hunger and food insecurity. Research and extension should focus on improving year-round availability and affordability of nutrient-dense foods that can grow in specific rural communities.