Pretoria - The only way to deal with escalating food prices is to increase food production, Agriculture Minister Lulu Xingwana said on Thursday.
"We have to go out into the land, out into the fields and produce food for ourselves," Xingwana told thousands of people at a Food Summit in Midrand.
"There is no other way, there are no short cuts," she said.
The reasons for the food crisis were intertwined with macro economic factors like increasing oil prices, high input costs, rising inflation, a weakening world bank sector and climate change.
"Our farmers are suffering," she said, adding that there were also other pressures in the form of rising seed, petrol, fertiliser and energy costs.
Xingwana also called on the Competition Commission to come up with stricter measures to prevent price fixing and collusion.
Food production was both a short and long term solution to the country's and the world's food crisis.
The department would help poorer communities with feeding schemes and by handing out starter vegetable garden packs to encourage them to grow their own vegetables.
Wealthier South Africans were also encouraged to "cut their beautiful lawns" and plant vegetables, she said.
Xingwana said her department had requested additional support from the Treasury to support its food production efforts.
"We are hoping that we will get the support to assist us in this emergency," she said, adding that she would know in September if the request had been successful.
Darkness of hunger
Earlier, Gauteng agriculture MEC Khabisi Mosunkutu said South Africans must fight rising food prices for the sake of the nation and their families.
"We will not sail silently into the darkness of hunger... that is not going to happen at all."
Companies involved in price fixing and collusion also had to be dealt with because they made quick profits and did not care about the effects on the poor.
"We must deal with them. They must not escape."
He said President Thabo Mbeki had been talking about the problem for six years however other countries had not been listening.
"It is clear that these countries, who essentially control the world economy, essentially do not seem to care. They have not moved on their agreements."
He said he was speaking not as a member of government or a chairperson on any committee, but as a father trying to fight the food crisis and help the farmers.
"My children will not live in poverty because their father failed to protect the farmers. I will not leave my children the legacy of my failed battles.
"If I am defeated now, I must ensure that tomorrow I will win."
Struggling to get land
He said small scale black farmers were still struggling to get land and those who had could not compete with international producers.
"We have not as yet come to the level of competing with anyone. Ordinary black farmers are still struggling to get land."
Serious political commitment was needed to make farming work in the country and this included subsidizing land.
Guidance was also needed from other sectors.
Referring to AgriSA's president Lourie Bosman's comment earlier in the week that farmers were "not unhappy" about the price increase, Mosunkutu said he agreed that it was a "kill" for them because they were able to make money inside and outside of the country.
However this was not possible for small-scale farmers.
Lot Mlati from the Food and Agricultural Organisation said high food prices were a "serious concern", especially for the poor who spent on average 50 to 80 percent of their income on food.
Factors that had contributed to the high prices included declining food stocks - they were at their lowest levels since the 1970s - poor harvests due to extreme weather, high energy and oil prices, lack of investment in the agricultural sector and strong economic growth and urbanization.
- Sapa