Follow the ‘Ting: sorghum in South Africa

Figures & data

Table 1. List of people interviewed during the research.

Name/Pseudonym	Stakeholder group
Malebogo Ngoepe	Consumer
Sue*	Industry
Nemera Shargie	Research
Bob*	Industry and commercial farmers
Mark*	Industry
John*	Industry
Kobus van der Merwe	Chef and innovator
Roelie van Heerden	Innovator
Loubie Rusch	Innovator
Mpho Tshukudu	Dietician
Riette de Kock	Research and innovation
Lawrence Makhapili	Civil society and smallholder farmer in Kwa-Zulu Natal Province
Temba Chauke	Smallholder farmer in Limpopo Province

Figure 1. A box of Maltabella malted sorghum porridge (Source: Author’s Own).

Figure 2. Ground sorghum from Wellness Warehouse, retailing at ZAR 40.95 (approximately 20 USD) per kilogram in December 2018 (Source: Author’s own).

Box 1. Africa’s feathered locust.

“Amazimba needs a lot of labour and nowadays children go to school and there is no one to help in the fields and chase away the birds” (Notes from a focus group with smallholder farmers in Pondoland region of the Eastern Cape, See Kennedy, 2015). “The big challenge is, even those producing it (sorghum), they have the problem of birds- It’s not a hybrid variety or commercial variety” (Lawrence on smallscale farmers in KwaZulu- Natal). The Red-billed Quelea has been dubbed “Africa’s feathered locust” (Mundy and Jarvis 1989). The exposed grain of the sorghum plant makes it particularly vulnerable to bird predation and the quelea birds are notorious culprits. The birds prefer sweet sorghum, (which is also better for milling, food and bioethanol), so farmers have opted to grow bitter sorghum, in part to reduce predation by these birds. As acreage of sorghum has decreased, the relative amount of predation on plots has increased- the same number of birds predating on fewer crops means that the damage is considerably higher. If farmers were able to plant their sorghum together, rather than in isolated plots, this could help to alleviate the bird predation problem: “There is potential if the farmers can come together and plant more, therefore the birds can eat some and leave some. It needs people to be told about that because they’re not aware- awareness and education is necessary” (Lawrence).

Figure 3. The towers of the King Korn processing plant of Tiger Brands in Potchefstroom (Source: Author’s Own).

Figure 4. King Korn malted sorghum and quick brew original beer powder from Tiger Brands (Source: Author’s own).

Figure 5. King Korn Mabele Meal (coarse and fine).

Figure 6. The 7 flavors of Morvite (Source: Author’s own).

Figure 7. Packets of mabele meal and morvite on sale at a local supermarket (Source: Author’s own).

Figure 8. Not-corn popped sorghum on sale at Whole Foods for £1.20 a 30 g bag- that’s about the same price as a 2 kg bag of sorghum flour in South Africa (Source: Author’s own).

Figure 9. Prof John Taylor and I in his office, posing in front of different varieties of sorghum in the background (Source: Author’s own).

Figure 10. So Yhum Sorghum biscuits made at the University of Pretoria (Source: Author’s Own).

Figure 11. The cover of Mpho and Anna’s book entitled “Eat Ting.” As with the title of this paper, there is a pun on the word “Ting” that refers to fermented foods (Source: Quivertree publications).

Figure 12. Wolfgat’s sorghum porridge and beer ice cream dessert (Source: Jenny Willis).

Figure 13. Sorghum bread on the table at Wolfgat (Source: Jenny Willis).

Figure 14. Sorghum salad on the menu for lunch at Spirit Café, a healthy vegetarian restaurant in Cape Town (Source: Author’s Own).

Kennedy, K. 2015. “A Social – Ecological Systems Approach to Understanding Development in A Dynamic World : A Case Study of Traditional Agriculture in Pondoland, South Africa.” University of Cape Town.

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Mundy, P. J., and M. J. F. Jarvis. 1989. Africa’s Feathered Locust. Harare, Zimbabwe: Baobab Books. https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=04w_AAAAYAAJ.

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