Integrating with the West Rand Mega Park
The creation of a sustainable and inclusive economy is in many respects the holy grail of economic and social planning. In the food system this ideal may be more attainable than in other sectors like mining by virtue of the biological character of almost all of our food. Food is immediately biological, and the accessibility of food production places it at the heart of our efforts at sustainable development.
In this iZindaba Zokudla Farmers’ Lab we deliberated on how we could create such a sustainable and inclusive food system. The key idea here was not ecological nor increases in production, but lies in making bulk food purchases accessible to independent retailers. This Lab was possible as we had real and significant interest in this issue from the Maximum Group who is building the new West Rand Mega Park, and from Farm 2 Fork and AIEYE, who is designing digital systems for the Mega Park in Protea, Soweto.
The participation in this Virtual Lab by Mr Mphuti Mphuti from Soweto Business Access – who have organized spaza shops as part of a buyers group – and the Zodwa Khoza Foundation, as a business incubator concerned about the local context, has enabled us to commence with a discussion on how to realise this.
No farmer can produce all the food needed to live a healthy life. This translates to the fact that we need dynamic and significant trade in food to ensure the market reaches everyone and delivers food of acceptable quality, quantity, amongst others, to everyone. Often this does not happen, and it may be due to a lack of inherent dynamics in the market, or it may be due to structural problems with the market mechanism. However, we should note that in almost all countries, and certainly in countries with a free-market economy, we will find important vestiges of a command style or centrally planned economy. In South Africa the Crop Estimates Committee plans planting of crops and also plans for the impacts of the magnitude of planting every year. Similar activities will surely be found in the way we manage our livestock herds and also in the way we plan the manufacture of chemicals and inputs, the way we respond to pests and diseases, and also in the way we plan for human resources in agriculture.
This system feeds a food market whose structure was created after the Second World War when food security became an issue. In Europe, America and Japan, farmers receive subsidies, which were originally planned for to counter food insecurity. Currently, these subsidies mostly keep in place the large multinational producers of maize and soya. This way we plan our agricultural sectors had its origins in food security planning after the Second World War, and currently the Common Agricultural Policy of the EU, American agricultural subsidies, and South African activities, many centered around the Agricultural Research Council determine, in many indirect ways, how our food system is structured.
Our Fresh Produce Markets are part of this system. The Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market commands up to 60% of all our food in South Africa and this kind of centralisation invites trouble. This centralisation will standardise and homogenise our trade in food, whilst we in fact should be exploring new approaches and new innovations, so we can recreate our food system as sustainable. We need trade to allow independent farmers and retailers, a.o. to be competitive.
The systems that are being developed for the WRMP hold the potential for a much more diverse and highly differentiated system of trade. The potential of current technology to lead a better food system lies precisely in how much it can accommodate differential trade. By this I mean the extent to which it can allow each transaction to be different, appropriate and at as low a cost (in price and resource consumption) as possible. Farmer to customer trade is but one example. The systems that can accommodate this kind of trade would have to be devolved so multiple agents can influence them, digital so there is no boundary of time and place, accessible, so we could use free services like WhatsApp and Telegram to gain access to more complex systems, and it must reward the entrepreneur for finding this lowest cost path of trade.
These systems also allow us to change our behaviour. Should we be able to buy competitive products from independent retailers, we can create a new pattern in the food system. Such a pattern cannot be decided on beforehand but needs to be forged in the dynamics of the market. To achieve this, we need to experiment with new patterns, and we need to allow actors to mingle and experiment, attempt new approaches and learn where these fail. Actors who are aware of their interests will sooner rather than later find the most appropriate approach for themselves, but this approach is determined by the underlying structures, procedures and technologies of trade. Now, with new technology animating this market, we have a chance to see if we can find these sustainable and beneficial patterns in the economy.
Our discussants gave us the building blocks to build such a new food system. We ourselves already have social media with which we can advertise and market our businesses. With these we can build relationships and keep in touch. These complex relationships can be used to harvest wastes from the household as we recruit new customers. This could establish the local spaza shop as not only a connected hub, but a point where food waste can be harvested and exchanged for food. Food waste can then be taken to the farmer to ensure a beneficial harvest in the future. Technology would make this tight connection between the shop and the community possible, and this is the structure we need in place to trade food in a more sustainable way.
Once we link this tight relationships between traders and customers, we can start using this system understand how demand changes and fluctuates. This will enable Spaza shops to know when their customers want certain things, and this demand can be planned for upstream to the WRMP so their systems can prepare for this trade. This information can also be sent to farmers, so they know when, say, tomatoes will be in high demand. This will allow farmers to plant in good time, and we can then create a information rich system of trade that will enable farmers to know when they should plant, traders when they should order, and customers when the product is ready. We can also understand this cycle within a broader resource-cycling process, and also understand this process as part of bigger trends in cuisine and food preferences. It would be a really grand achievement if we can engineer this trade through our home-grown Spaza shops but supported by the technological wizardry of the WRMP. This could be a model for trade across the continent and we should immediately be investigating what effects this has in the long run. We will not yet know if this is a better system than the previous, but we can find this out!
In this regard, our speakers did not disappoint. Slaven Gajovic emphasised the deeply technological nature of the WRMP – a 4th Industrial Revolution Park, but then reminded us that this depends on 5th Generation Human Resources to make it work. The ability of people to utilise blockchain, artificial intelligence and a multi-dimensional value chain approach can enable “profit whilst doing good”. This is realised through circular systems that values waste and in turn creates an industrial symbiosis amongst the WRMP and society. The Park is planning a “Zero to Landfill” approach and also wants to level the playing field between players. This is done by an innovative approach to equipment and tool hire at the Park, where you only pay for use. All farmers stand on the same platform.
The Farm 2 Fork systems will also be ground-breaking. Mitesh Chotou described these as enabling a traceability, the ability to forecast demand and supply, and a grand approach to the sharing of infrastructure. This creation of an ecosystem of trade (with a direct link to Rotterdam and hence globally), based on both money and a loyalty token, allows new approaches to trade. This will allow bridging finance for bulk buying, and create incentives for bankable trade. A farmer can become highly creditworthy through this system, as the behaviour – and not only the money in the bank of the farmer – creates the farmer as bankable. A farmer may become bankable and financeable by judicious planting, judicious investment in climate smart infrastructure, and by judiciously seeking out dedicated customers. Now we can trade in a fully comprehensible system and this holds new and great benefits for farmers. It is up to us to exploit and create this system so it serves us.
The above thus needs to be engaged with by local actors in order to shape it as conducive to local interests. We listened to Mr Mphuti Mphuti from Soweto Business Access and to Sonono Khoza from the Zodwa Khoza Foundation in Diepkloof, Soweto. We are extremely interested in whether we can lead independent spaza shops to these systems, and with this Farmers’ Lab we have established a relationship and a process of engagement wherein Spaza shops could campaign for their interests. When such a new system is implemented, new interests emerge, and we still need to see how and when this could lead to new patterns of trade. In this regard, I am aware that trade is already happening between local Spaza shops and the Thulamela Business forum.
Should we establish this connection – and it is abundantly clear that this connection needs to be established – then we can create new patterns to support township economic revitalisation. We can support the use of SASSA Grants in local Spaza shops and the opportunity is there to connect the SASSA spending to emerging farmer development, so our spending of the grants directly benefit emerging African farmers. This is a public policy goal that is politically very important. The integration of Spaza shops with larger digital systems will also allow Spaza shops to sell products outside their own 4 walls. Think of Spaza’s as drop off points for couriers and traders such as Amazon. Think of Spaza shops as places where all accounts can be paid. Think of Spaza shops carrying all kinds of brands with ½ day delivery times. Think of Spaza shops as places where food is sold at lowest possible cost through food hampers. Think of Spaza shops as holding the keys to the success of the land reform programme… We can do this if we act smartly and find the key and right connections in the economy to make this happen. This can be engineered through the kinds of systems that WRMP is establishing.
We had the benefit of hosting two critical discussants in this Farmers’ Lab. Prof Jan Grundling from Tshwane University of Technology and head of their Centre for Entrepreneurship reiterated the importance of bulk-buying as a strategy for Spaza shops. He furthermore emphasised the challenges that stem from fluctuations in the market, stemming from mismatches between supply and demand, or poor information. I am thinking of “bakkie-traders” who ply the highways between the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market and Soweto. I always feel sorry for the workers on the back of these bakkies, who endure discomfort, poor safety and the cold in winter on the way to final customers. How would these livelihoods be transformed by the uses of efficient and smart systems? Would we be able to bestow a greater amount of dignity to this trade once we have established better systems? We are obligated to try!
Prof Grundling also emphasised the benefits of modern technologies in this sector of the economy. The implementation of 4IR technologies including big data and Artificial Intelligence may hold great benefits for the current system but he also emphasised the need to match the 4IR with “Network Leadership” and good quality human resources. He commended the organisational design of the WRMP and the fact that the systems can create trust through transparency and integrity. Traceability – a key benefit of the Farm 2 Fork systems, holds perhaps more benefits than drawbacks for an emerging and struggling farmer, as this creates an opportunity for an ethical product design, and this will command a premium in the market.
The systems that the WRMP proposes also creates a platform for informal traders and with this we could see some innovation in their activities. This platform is however also open to engagement by Higher Education Institutions. The University should engage with these systems as it is particularly important that we shape them, so they deliver our people a better quality of life, so they are efficient and deliver great value, and so they play a part in broader social reconstruction – inclusive of educating new talent – so that we all benefit in the long run. Prof Grundling gave us a supremely important suggestion: that we develop a Demonstration Centre at the WRMP so all farmers, traders, stakeholders and activists can see what can be done to establish sustainable agriculture, sustainable processing, sustainable distribution, supply and value chains, and ultimately, sustainable markets. This may in fact be the way in which we could achieve all of this!
Our last Critical Discussant, Brennan Williams commented that the WRMP offers a fantastic model for food trade. He cautioned that we need to focus sufficiently on agriculture in the beginning and to make sure micro-level producers are included. He did mention the proliferation of local food gardens and asked if these can be incorporated into the system. This may certainly be possible, as the Farm 2 fork systems can be employed without produce having to be delivered centrally. It would be possible for the system to incorporate such local production and account for its sales in local Spaza shops. He cautioned that we would need a complete communication system to coordinate production and planning. This, however, will build-upon technology, from tunnels to irrigation to vertical farming. This system can help in managing planting and can also build the skills of farmers to develop their enterprises, and this could link to the UJ and its offerings or to his Global Enterprise Academy. He cautioned that this system must be inclusive as we need to socialise us all into this new way of trading food.
Immediately after the lab Mitesh – who had to leave us for another meeting – returned. In our discussion he described how the WRMP and the Farm 2 fork systems can be used to build a next generation of IT professionals. He mentioned that a Tier 1 Cyber security centre qualification col be bundled with current Degree and Diploma courses. This then would enable students in these Degree or Diploma courses to act as advisors to SME, and enable a business transition to these digital systems. Students will also leave university with a practical certification, and this will be earned by doing practical work with SMEs. I do not know if this will work, but what I do know is that this suggestion would never have been articulated, had I not organised the Lab. We really need a Lab to reinvent South Africa…
This was a great Farmers’ Lab, bursting wit ideas on how to transform our food system. #PhambiliBalimi!
Please note further details on our presenters can be found here:
On the West Rand Mega Park: https://www.westrandmegapark.co.za/
On the Farm 2 Form systems: farm2fork.org.za
To get to know what Prof Jan Grundling is doing, please visit his Google Scholar Page: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=uZfZk8kAAAAJ&hl=en
To find out about Brannan Williams’ Global Enterprise Academy, please visit:
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