Flooding in KwaZulu Natal and its impacts on food security between 2021 and 2022 among women in rural areas

Abstract

Climate change is real. It is here to hunt us for a long time if we continue to deny its causes, effects and killing impacts. There is no doubt that anthropogenic causes of climate change in Africa signify that food insecurity is here to stay, possibly, ad infinitum, if adaptation and mitigation strategies are not on the policymakers' table. The twins' solutions to the climate variabilities are not within the reach of Africa due to the lack of environmentally appropriate technology to assuage the same. This paper investigates the impacts of flooding caused by climate change on food production, distribution, and consumption in KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. A need for this is to interrogate government ad hoc policy on how to bail small-scale farmers out of the doldrums with emphasis on women who were mostly affected by the impacts of the flooding in 2022 that ravaged croplands in the province. Theoretically, the paper adopted agroecological and eco-feminist approaches; it relies on secondary sources of data. With this, a need for the state supplying of relevant agricultural inputs in times of need will ensure sustainable food security in South Africa. In doing this, women, the credible agents of organic food need special attention.