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BuaNews
(Tshwane)

South Africa: Government is Committed to Tackle High Food Prices

Nthambeleni Gabara

22 May 2008

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Polokwane — Government is committed to confront the increasing food prices head on, says Limpopo Premier Sello Moloto.

Mr Moloto was speaking at the provincial Food Security Summit (FSS), themed "Freedom and Hard Work", which was held in Polokwane on Tuesday.

"We are aware that the inflationary pressures have pushed up food and commodity prices globally.

"However, our government is committed to ensure that we cushion the impact of this phenomenon on the poor and other economically vulnerable members of our province," he said.

The main purpose of the provincial government to host the FSS was to explore ways in which food security could be enhanced in the province by mitigating the effects of increasing food and commodity prices.

When defining food security to delegates, the Head of Department of Health and Welfare, Dr Jabu Dlamini said: "Food security involves availability of nutritious food from diverse sources to enhance healthy diet and lifestyle".

During the summit, delegates identified lack of funds, unemployment, unfavourable climatic conditions and scarcity of water as contributory factors that hinder communities from accessing adequate nutritious food.

The summit also acknowledged that lack of access to food has adverse consequences to the well being of affected households.

In attempting to tackle the increasing food price sequentially, the summit has adopted a strategy of short, medium and long term interventions.

The short term interventions include:

• People should be encouraged to grow food in their backyard gardens and recycle water they use for bathing and washing clothes to water them;

• The Department of Health and Social Development must continue to provide food parcels to indigent households;

• The province must establish an Integrated Food Security and Nutrition co-coordinating committee which will be led by the Department of Agriculture and Social Development. The committee must be fully operational by no later that 1 June 2008;

• It must have representation at provincial, district and local municipal levels and within the wards of the province;

• Popularisation of the work of this committee will commence as soon as it starts its operations in the province.

Resolutions of the medium term interventions include:

• The Department of Agriculture must provide financial assistance to start Agrarian projects;

• It must assist deserving small scale farming communities with seedlings and farming equipments and

• It must also assist them to market their harvest;

The long term interventions are:

• The department must enhance the formation and strengthening of Agrarian cooperatives;

• It must subsidise farmers and provide post harvest facilities such as cold rooms and drying to poor farming communities and

• The land restitution process must be tackled to enhance land ownership among historically disadvantages communities.

The summit was attended by representatives of the provincial and local spheres of government as well as Community Development Workers and Anti-poverty Non-Governmental Organisations to collectively develop a framework on how to overcome the challenge.

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