Harnessing smart city initiatives for sustainable food system transformation in South Africa

Smart city initiatives are transforming food systems globally. This is being achieved by integrating digital technologies, data analytics, and sustainable practices to create more efficient, resilient, and localized food supply chains. In South Africa, research on the nexus of smart city initiatives and food systems is still in an embryonic stage. This knowledge and literature gap has both practice and policy implications, potentially contributing to the current food insecurity among the urban poor. This article contributes toward narrowing these gaps. The article explores key approaches and technologies of smart cities in the context of food systems, identifies smart city initiatives, and examines opportunities and challenges for leveraging smart cities to transform food systems in South Africa. This article is underpinned by a systematic literature review of 84 articles from the Scopus and Google Scholar databases that focus on the impact of smart cities on urban food system transformation in South Africa. The findings indicate that harnessing smart cities for sustainable food systems in South Africa requires integrating technology into urban planning to enhance food security, reduce waste, and promote local, high-tech agricultural production. However, there are infrastructure, policy, and implementation challenges that must be addressed for countries to transform their food landscapes through smart cities.