KZN works to build food security

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“We are challenged on this front by rising food prices. We know from health experts that as a result of not getting adequate proteins and vitamins, one in five children suffers from malnutrition and learning disabilities,” MEC Mthembu said.

He was speaking at a media briefing at Moses Mabhida Stadium on Monday, 19 December, where he outlined the department’s strategic plans for 2017/18.

MEC Mthembu said food insecurity will become the overarching focus of the department. He stressed the need to see food as a health and social justice issue, before it is seen as business.

“This is not just a matter of planting more crops and raising more livestock, but dealing with issues of making nutritious food affordable to the poor. The well-being of our nation will be compromised if we do not find ways to provide nutritious food for the poor.

“We need to look at how we can measure our success according to the healthy foods we produce. Research, especially collaborative research with other institutions, will form an important part of this programme,” said MEC Mthembu.

The department’s plans will also incorporate the extensive growing of a diversity of food crops, including indigenous crops and fruit trees.

MEC Mthembu said that while the department will work directly with subsistence farmers, the plan is to develop an agency that will largely be concerned with commercial farming.

He said there is a plan to collapse all the department’s entities such as Agribusiness Development Agency (ADA) and Mjindi Farming into one entity. Commercial farming will become the domain of this new single entity.

The department’s strategy will also involve the development of an intensive urban farming programme, which is aimed at reviving the township economy and aggressively addressing poverty and unemployment.