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Small-scale farmers are vital link in food security
In a recent Business Report opinion piece, Pick n Pay Stores chairman Gareth Ackerman says that the need for initiatives to ensure the country's food security and the need to encourage small-scale farming as a means of alleviating poverty, creating jobs and opening up access for previously disadvantaged people to formal retail markets, is at the core of recent public discussion related to the state of South Africa's agricultural sector.
In the case of milk products, Ackerman says, price increases are also being driven by flight of almost 5 000 South African dairy farmers from the sector "in the face of rising input costs, declining profit margins and buy-outs by bigger commercial agricultural conglomerates." The situation threatens the long-term supply of milk, and has also caused the loss of thousands of rural jobs. "The Milk Producers' Organisation reckons that at least 10 jobs are lost for every farmer who exits the industry."
"While the odds may appear stacked against smaller dairy producers [...] there is a role for the emerging, small-scale and communal dairy farmer." Not only can small, rural producers contribute to household food security, Ackerman says, but - given the necessary financial, technical and material support - they have the potential to develop into a progressive and sustainable emerging sector. Pick n Pay is helping emerging entrepreneurs to build networks and access to formal markets. It strengthens worker-owned enterprises and brings emerging farmers into the Pick n Pay fresh produce supply chain.
Read the full article on www.iol.co.za.
