At this time of worldwide concern about food shortages, South Africa does have enough supplies to feed the nation, says the director-general of the department of agriculture and land affairs, Dr Emily Mogajane.
But the government is very concerned about rising prices and the affordability of staple foods, she says.
"We have a situation where SA does have sufficient food," she said. "We happen to be lucky compared with other countries in the world.
"Our food price monitoring committee has indicated that we have a three-million ton surplus of maize in the country."
Mogajane gave this assurance when she was speaking on SAfm Radio's discussion programme, The After Eight Debate, on the topic, "Is South Africa doing enough to secure food for its own nation?".
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The debate was held in the light of worldwide concerns about food shortages and the panel was told that 29 countries had already acted to curb exports and protect their own supplies.
"We do have food available," said Mogajane. "Our concern is whether vulnerable groups will be able to afford the present prices."
She said discussions had been held at cabinet level to discuss interventions that could help these vulnerable groups.
Mogajane said SA had imported only some yellow maize this year and this would be used as animal feed.
On why South Africa had not imported any genetically-modified maize, she said: "The government has instituted measures to ensure we don't get variants that may be detrimental to the people at large."
Mogajane said there had been a move away from the rural areas of South Africa to the towns and cities. "We must look at intervention measures to make agriculture more attractive."
But concern about the need to import food was expressed by another panel member, Prof Jan Williams, of the department of agricultural economics at the University of Free State.
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