Official newsletter of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries September 2017 Conference focus on ways of addressing structural bottlenecks that hinder transformation Dr Vuyo Mahlati, AFASA President, Ms Bongiwe Njobe, a private consultant and former DG of DAFF (1997 - 2004), his Excellency, President Jacob Zuma and Mr Senzeni Zokwana, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Ms Njobe was awarded for her sterling work in agriculture and agribusiness development. Article on p2
Transcript
DAFFOfficial newsletter of the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries
September 2017
Conference focus on ways of addressing structural bottlenecks that hinder transformation
Dr Vuyo Mahlati, AFASA President, Ms Bongiwe Njobe, a private consultant and former DG of DAFF (1997 - 2004), his Excellency, President Jacob Zuma and Mr Senzeni Zokwana, Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Ms Njobe was awarded for her sterling work in agriculture and agribusiness development.
The African Farmers Association of South Africa (AFASA) hosted a ground-breaking Agribusiness Transformation Conference from 31 July to 1 August 2017 at the Birch-wood Hotel, Boksburg. Given the heightened public interest around the need to accelerate economic transformation, AFASA hosted the conference with the aim of involv-ing public and private stakeholders in having an honest review of trans-formation in the sector and most importantly, to focus on ways of ad-dressing structural bottlenecks that hindered transformation.
“AFASA has always advocated for transformation in all commodities and their value chains to allow black farm-ers and agribusinesses to participate meaningfully, but it can not only push for a commercial commodity approach without addressing the land and water issue, as the two are intertwined. In the Western Cape Province for example, around 1% of land under commercial fruit production is in black hands, while in the sugar industry it is only 20%,” according to the AFASA President, Dr Vuyo Mahlatsi.
Mahlatsi emphasised that the con-ference was a platform to bring into focus the attempts at transformation by both public and private institutions and to critically reflect on investment strategies to advance an inclusive and competitive agri-industry. She said the
AFASA Agribusiness Transformation Conference
industry needed to interrogate what had been successful practices and those which had not been, as the main focus was to have a collaborative ap-proach on transformation in order to create a viable and inclusive commer-cial farming sector and agribusiness.
“South African smallholder farmers are not happy with the slow pace of land reform and farmer support, which are both critical for transformation in the sector; therefore, AFASA under-stands that the huge responsibility is to facilitate such a complex process.This is why AFASA has collaborated with institutions such as the National Agricultural Marketing Council (NAMC) and the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) to establish a knowledge centre to support farmers with infor-mation and act as a bridge between the diverse means of support,” she concluded.
As a way of celebrating Women’s Month, President Jacob Zuma presented three female agribusiness leaders who are pioneers in their industries with the Afri-can Farmers Association of South Africa’s Presidential Agribusiness Awards. The three awardees were recog-nised for their outstanding contribution in the sector.
Ms Nomvula Mokonyane, Minister of the Department of Water and Sanitation during the round table discussions at the AFASA Agribusiness Transformation Conference in Boksburg.
By Innocent Mhlanga
Dr Theo de Jager, Chairperson of SACAU and President of the World Farmers Organisation.
to p3
No. 9 DAFFnews September 2017 3
Departmental
Centane/Mbashe Agricultural Initia-tive
Established in 2012/13 with assist-ance from Wiphold, Centane/Mbashe is a black women-owned investment company which focuses on acquiring and building strategic investments in the mining and agricultural sectors. The initiative also specialises in the devel-opment of commercial models for the profitable and sustainable farming of communally owned land. The project’s commercial model is designed to have a high social impact, with particular em-phasis on income generation and food security for participating communities. Whilst in its early stages, the initiative is already having a noticeable socio-economic impact. After three seasons over R18 million has been distributed to community shareholders by way of free land use and dividend distribution.
Pheli Wines Pty Ltd. 100% black female-owned wine
producing company established in the Pretoria West township of Atterid-geville, the company does not have a farm, but was established as a venture in line with Wines of South Africa’s (WOSA) mandate of promoting the value growth of the South African wine industry locally and abroad.
Pheli Wines produces two wines,
2014 Black Rock Syrah and the 2016 Oudstad Sauvignon Blanc, both named after the two oldest sections in Atteridgeville and Saulsville, Phe-lindaba. These wines were produced under the mentorship of Stellenbosch Vineyards, with Ms Moyahabo as the winemaker of the project. The 2016 Oudstad Sauvignon Blanc won a bronze medal in an international wine competition known as VINORO in Ma-drid, Spain in May 2017.
Bongiwe Nomandi Njobe With over 30 years experience in
the agricultural sector, Bongiwe was awarded for her sterling work in agri-culture and agribusiness development. She initiated and led the broadening access to the BATAT agriculture trust which focused on addressing opportu-nities for transformation of the agricul-tural sector between 1994 and 1995.
After her term in government, Ms Njobe continued to contribute to South African agriculture between 2004 and 2013 serving as a Corporate Affairs Director at SABMiller subsidiary South African Breweries where she was re-sponsible for developing the Black Farmer Supplier’s Development Pro-gramme as well as contributing to the Corporate Sustainability Strategy.
She also worked at the Group of Langerberg and Ashton Foods where she was responsible for the conceptu-
alisation and establishment of the Tiger Brands Foundation’s School Breakfast Feeding Programme.
It was fitting to kickstart the month of August, dedicated to celebrating women, by awarding those who had done well in spite of the challenges they faced as emerging black agribusi-ness owners especially during a time when black agribusiness faces a lot of challenges such as access to markets, finances and lack of relevant skills. It is for this reason that AFASA AGRIBUSI-NESS saw the importance of hosting a transformation conference.
Mr Senzeni Zokwana, DAFF Minis-ter with Dr Vuyo Mahlati, President of the African Farmers Association of South Africa.
from p 2
Mr Senzeni Zokwana, DAFF Minis-ter.
September 2017 DAFFnews No. 9 4
Departmental
Under the theme “Harnessing in-vestment for youth empowerment towards South Africa’s economic development and future prosperity,” the Department of Agriculture, For-estry and Fisheries hosted a youth career expo in Barberton, Mpuma-langa on 15 June to commemorate the June 1976 youth uprising.
The event kicked off with Deputy Min-ister Bheki Cele and his guests visiting the Siyachuba and Siyasebenza Coop-eratives in the Barberton Environmen-tal Centre, which is located 4 km from the town of Barberton.
The Siyachuba and Siyasebenza projects are run by three young farm-ers who are beneficiaries of the For-tune 40 programme, under their men-tor Tony Nyathi, who was appointed by the department. Twenty youth-owned SMMEs and cooperatives were re-cruited into the incubator programme which operates under a strategic part-nership with the private sector to men-tor future commercial farmers. Up to date, the beneficiaries have obtained training workshops on crop production, financial management and farm man-agement. The young farmers in the Fortune 40 programme hailed the pro-gramme and said it had paved a better living for them. One of the beneficiaries, Thandeka Mavuso said, “This is our second production; we have already sold our first production. The govern-ment gave us land and we saw our way through. Thank you to the department for providing us with equipment.”
The project mainly produces vegeta-bles such as spinach, tomatoes, car-rots, green pepper and butternut. The provincial department assisted with the project’s infrastructure, delivered a four row planter F40 tractor and constructed a pack house and a poultry house. Fur-thermore, a 20 ha perimeter fence was constructed to prevent wild animals from trampling on the crops and peo-
ple from stealing; three boreholes were also drilled and tested.
Speaking at Barberton Stadium where the main event took place, Bheki Cele said the department had three mandates of ensuring food secu-rity and nutrition, creating employment and contributing to the country’s GDP and the economy, as farming created wealth by producing something that was not yet there. All departmental pro-grammes were done in order to fulfil those mandates.
He said, 14,3 million people in South Africa go to bed hungry as markets op-erate in such a way that food can only be afforded and purchased by people who have money—if you don’t have money you will go to bed hungry.”
Phethiwe Sithole owns her own farm and she was one of the young guest speakers at the event. She said she had discovered gold in farming and en-couraged young people to consider it as a career. Her plea was that young people must make use of the opportu-nities created and provided by the gov-
ernment by standing up for themselves and starting small. “The government gave me land and assisted me when-ever I needed them to; however, in everything I invested effort and showed passion. Today I am able to sell and feed my family, including the communi-ty. It all starts with you picking yourself up as a young person, the government can’t do everything for you while you do absolutely nothing.”
The Deputy Minister made a request to young people to venture into agricul-ture with an understanding of what their mission was and not solely to make money.
“We must avoid reaching a state where the world has hungry parents, hungry children and a hungry grand-child. Be a youth with a changing pro-gramme. Yes, you can make money through farming but over and above people must sleep feeling better than yesterday. Young people should con-tribute in fulfilling the mandate to feed South Africans,” he said.
Young farmers hail provincial youth programme at DAFF Youth Expo
By Ziphora Radebe
General Bheki Cele, Deputy Minister of DAFF with Mr V Shongwe, MEC for Mpumalanga Department: Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs.
No. 9 DAFFnews September 2017 5
Departmental
The Deputy Minister of Agricul-ture, Forestry and Fisheries, Gen-eral Bheki Cele visited KwaZulu-Natal’s first 100% black owned strawberry farm in Ballito.
Cappeny Estates Strawberry Farm, which was started in 2013, is owned by Mxolisi Gumede and his wife, Yoli-sa. The 7 ha farm produces straw-berries on an open hydroponic sys-tem using catchment harvested from rainwater.
The Deputy Minister commended the couple for their innovation in ven-turing into a different market. He said the farm represented everything the department stood for; food security and nutrition, job creation and contri-bution to the GDP and emphasised the importance of having young peo-ple in agriculture. He also said that he was impressed by young African people who were involved in farming.
“It is important to innovate, not to compete but to lead”, said Mr Gumede, adding that they would like to replicate similar farm models. He said that as a pioneer one often came across challenges and they would like to assist those who were interested in strawberry farming to avoid such challenges. However, he cautioned that a lot of research was needed before one ventured into strawberry farming. “Production challenges are very severe but the rewards are good because when you have the product,
you don’t battle to sell it.”In support of her husband and busi-
ness partner, Yoliswa Gumede added that they would like to replicate the model because it was important to harvest in packs, so that when they went out to market, they wouldn’t just find strawberries from Cappeny Farm Estates but strawberries from South Africa, made up of a cluster consisting of many farms.
Mr Gumede gave the Deputy Min-ister a site visit of the farm and in-formed him that there were 800 va-rieties of strawberries; all of which were developed outside the coun-try, meaning that growers like him
First black owned strawberry farm in KZN
had to pay royalties in order to use them. The farm has seven varieties of strawberry plants. He said there were only two commercial nurseries in the country that sold strawberry plants; to which the Deputy Minis-ter commented that there had to be thorough research into developing varieties of strawberries in the coun-try. The General officially opened the production site of the farm which em-ploys 50 permanent workers and 60 seasonal workers. They also produce their own strawberry jam and cereal, while also supplying major retailers such as Spar, Pick n Pay and Check-ers as well as the hospitality industry.
By Rony Moremi
General Cele with Mr Mxolisis Gumede, owner of Cappeny farm on the right and Mr Noah Nyawo, President of YARD on the left.
September 2017 DAFFnews No. 9 6
Departmental
This Act that is meant to provide for the conservation of the marine eco-system, the long-term sustainable utilisation of marine living resourc-es and the orderly access to exploi-tation, utilisation and protection of certain marine living resources; and for these purposes to provide for the exercise of control over marine liv-ing resources in a fair and equitable manner to the benefit of all the citi-zens of South Africa; and to provide for matters connected therewith.
Unless the context indicates other-wise, this Act shall apply:• to all persons, whether or not
South African persons and to all fishing vessels and aircraft, includ-ing foreign fishing vessels and aircraft, on, in or in the airspace above South African waters
• to fishing activities carried out by means of local fishing vessels or South African aircraft in, on, or in the airspace above waters outside South African waters, including waters under the particular juris-diction of another state
• to the Prince Edward Islands re-ferred to in section 1 of the Prince Edward Islands Act, 1948 (Act No. 43 of 1948), and any reference in this Act to the Republic shall in-clude a reference to those Islands.
This Act, including any applicable regulation, shall have extraterritorial application and shall not apply in re-spect of fish found in water which does not at any time form part of the sea.
The only refuge for many of the fish species are Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) such as the iSimingaliso, Pon-
doland, Tsitsikamma, Goukamma and De Hoop areas along the Indian Ocean east of the country and it is mentioned in this Act that no person shall in any marine protected area, without permis-sion:• fish or attempt to fish • take or destroy any fauna and flora
other than fish• dredge, extract sand or gravel,
discharge or deposit waste or any other polluting matter, or in any way disturb, alter or destroy the natural environment
• construct or erect any building or other structure on or over any land or water within such a marine pro-tected area
• carry on any activity which may adversely impact on the ecosys-tems of that area.
South Africa’s MarineAct No:
No. 9 DAFFnews September 2017 7
Departmental
There are also species restrictions in terms of size and mass limits such as: (1) no person, while engaged in fishing hake by means of a longline shall: • on any one day collect, keep, con-
trol or be in possession of any by-catch in excess of more than 20% nominal mass of his or her hake catch
• land any by-catch in excess of more than 20% nominal mass of his or her hake catch
• on any one day collect, keep, control or be in possession of any kingklip by-catch in excess of more than 10% nominal mass of his or her hake catch
• land any kingklip by-catch in ex-cess of more than 10% nominal mass of his or her hake catch
(2) No person shall during and fol-
lowing fishing or related activities:• transport any abalone that is not
in the whole state, except on the authority of a permit;
• remove abalone other than with the use of a flat implement of which the front edge is not less than 25 mm wide and not more than 35 mm wide and that has been so rounded as not to cut or damage the foot of an abalone.
• No person shall engage in fish-ing, keeping or controlling of, or be in possession of, any abalone of which the shell is able to pass through a ring with an inside diam-eter of 114 mm
Management of marine living re-sources which determines the allow-able catches and applied effort says:• the Minister shall determine the
total allowable catch, the total applied effort, or a combination thereof
• the Minister shall determine the portions of the total allowable catch, the total applied effort, or a combination thereof, to be allo-cated in any year to subsistence, recreational, local commercial and foreign fishing, respectively.
In the execution of his or her pow-ers in terms of this section, the Minister may determine that the total allowable catch, or the total applied effort, or a combination thereof; shall apply in a particular area, or in respect of particu-lar species or a group of species of fish and in respect of the use of particular gear, fishing methods or types of fish-ing vessels.
Living Resources18 of 1998
September 2017 DAFFnews No. 9 8
Departmental
The Global Conference on Ra-bies Elimination in 2015 agreed on a common goal of zero human deaths from canine rabies by 2030. In support of this goal, the 2017 World Rabies Day theme is Rabies: Zero by 30.
World Rabies Day is observed eve-ry year on 28 September. It is a global day for action and awareness for ra-bies prevention. It is also an opportu-nity to unite as a community and for individuals, NGOs and governments to cooperate in the fight against ra-bies.
Rabies is a disease that kills more than 60 000 people a year, mostly children, in developing countries. It affects the central nervous system of mammals, including humans and is usually transmitted via the saliva when an infected animal bites another ani-mal or human during the final stages of the disease. According to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), 95% of these deaths are caused by dog bites from infected dogs.
The incubation period can vary from days to several months. Once symp-toms are present, the disease is virtu-
Zero human deaths from rabies by 2030
By Rony Moremi
ally 100% fatal for both animals and humans (OIE).
Symptoms normally only last three to five days before death occurs and can include: • salivation, • strange vocalisations, incoordina-
tion, • paralysis• aggression especially when ap-
proached. Many other symptoms can be ob-
served and so people should avoid touching or interacting with any un-known animal, or any animal behav-ing strangely.
According to the OIE, more than 80% of the deaths caused by rabies occur in rural areas and it is regarded as the deadliest zoonotic disease (a disease that is spread from animals to people) in the world.
As rabies occurs in domestic and wild animals across South Africa, DAFF encourages communities not to touch or pick up unknown or stray ani-mals, especially dogs. However, if a person is bitten by a dog, they should wash the wound well with soap under running water and go to their nearest
clinic immediately for treatment.Rabies can easily be controlled and
eventually eliminated altogether in South Africa, if all dog owners abide by the law, Animal Diseases Act, 1984 (Act no. 35 of 1984) and regularly vac-cinate their dogs against rabies.
DAFF therefore appeals to every dog owner in the country to ensure that their dogs are vaccinated against rabies.
For further information contact the nearest Animal Health Technician, Private Veterinarian or State Veteri-narian.
Rabies is a viral illness spread via the saliva of an infected animal. This occurs usually through bit-ing a human or another animal. Transmission can also occur through saliva touching an open wound or touching mucous mem-branes.
Rabies is caused by the rabies virus. The virus infects the brain and ultimately leads to death. After being bitten by a rabid animal, the virus is deposited in the muscle and subcutaneous tissue. For most of the incubation period (which is usually one to three months), the
virus stays close to the expo-sure site. The virus then travels via peripheral nerves to the brain and from there, again via peripheral nerves, to nearly all parts of the body.Any mammal can spread rabies. In the developing world, stray dogs are the most likely animal to transmit rabies. The virus has also been found in cows, cats, ferrets, and horses.
Rabies facts
No. 9 DAFFnews September 2017 9
SectorDepartmental
Students in the agriculture and forestry study fields gathered at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), George cam-pus for the 45th International For-estry Students Symposium (IFSS) in July. The two-week long sympo-sium was an opportunity for South Africa to showcase its forestry culture and explore global per-spectives on various aspects of sustainable forest management.
The symposium was held under the theme, “Practicing forestry in a diverse environment: Siyaphi? Where to from here?” Hosted under the auspices of the International For-estry Students’ Association (IFSA), these symposiums aim to further in-ternational forest education while de-veloping forestry professionals that are cognisant of the fact that forest ecosystems thrive beyond political boundaries.
The IFSS has been organised since 1973; each year in a different country. It has been hosted in coun-tries such as Austria, the Philippines and Canada. Participants of the sym-posium are forestry students from all over the world who get the opportu-nity to experience forestry as defined by the particular host country.
About 121 students from up to 30 countries across the globe partici-pated in this year’s symposium con-sisting of workshops, seminars, dia-logues and educational excursions.
The Deputy Chairperson of IFSS 2017, Kopano Khwene who is also a Master’s student at the NMMU said that the students had come from many countries to share in the expe-rience of South African forestry and its diversity.
Speaking at the opening of the
symposium on behalf of the Deputy Minister of the Department of Agricul-ture, Forestry and Fisheries General Bheki Cele, Ms Morongoa Leseke who was Acting Deputy Director-General for Forestry and Natural Resources Management at the time, highlighted the need to move away from producing workers to produc-ing drivers of the economy to ensure transformation.
She further said that young people had to take over the leadership roles in the sector on a global scale.
The Executive Mayor of George Melvin Naik, emphasised to the stu-dents that as leaders within the for-estry sphere, they were called upon not only to connect globally but to be responsive, flexible, adaptive, foster innovative thinking and actions in en-suring a thriving world.
The Chairperson of the IFSA, Jesse Mahoney, who was in South Africa for the first time said that through the association students,learned that humans could not exist in isolation but relied on complex and disorderly ecosystems.
He further added that they learnt that immense challenges existed in equality, evaluation of their forests and other natural ecosystems and equity and that together they could make a difference by working to-wards sustainability for future gen-erations.
The symposium is often organised by one tertiary institution in the host country. However, this year it was or-ganised through a collaborative effort of South African tertiary institutions which are the NMMU, Stellenbosch University, Fort Cox Agriculture and Forestry Institute, the University of Venda and the University of Pretoria.
Student’s symposium to explore global perception on forestry
By Jamela Nkanyane
September 2017 DAFFnews No. 9 10
Sector
South African farmers are not only concerned about worsening weath-er patterns, land issues and farm murders, but also have to deal with growing criminal activities on their farms like illegal hunting with dogs.
These hunting actions have become more organised and sophisticated over the last decade, adding to the tension between farmers, communi-ties and even conservation authorities. Several farmers have had hair-raising experiences with these trespassers, mostly well-informed about their rights and legal issues and using it to their full benefit.
There could be no doubt about the extent of the problem when you read through newspaper reports, magazine articles and related research. Unfortu-nately, many cases of illegal hunting with dogs are never solved, while an-gry farmers often get in trouble trying to deal with the culprits. This forces farming organisations to become more involved by communicating the cor-rect actions and procedures as well as working towards closer relations with the police and other authorities.
Agri SA has stressed continuously that hunting with dogs on farms is a crime and that the involved trespass-ers are ignoring access and other pro-tocol signed by several organisations
and the South African Police Service (SAPS). Agri SA’s Rural Safety Com-mittee recently spent considerable time discussing the problem and look-ing for answers. Illegal hunting with dogs is a growing problem, but land owners must be extremely careful about actions that could make them liable for prosecution.
Although the illegal hunting with dogs is regarded a serious offence, land owners should be cautious of the correct procedures and the preserv-ing of as much evidence against the culprits as possible and rather get the local farm watch involved from the beginning. There is just too much at stake to act impulsively. There are suf-ficient laws to deal with the problem and farmers should report all cases of illegal hunting with dogs to the local
Phot
o: H
untin
gdis
cuss
Illegal hunting with dogs
police and keep record of cases.Extreme caution and consideration
of actions must be exercised when dealing with the issue pertaining to the illegal hunting with dogs. In cases where land owners find dogs on their land destroying property, the police should immediately be notified. It is highly recommended that farmers contact their safety network for some farmers/neighbours to assist them especially when several offenders are involved in the commission of il-legal hunting with dogs on their land. Agri SA has developed guidelines for farmers to use to guide them on how to deal with the problem and will be made available to affiliates soon.
By Kobus Visser, Director: Corpo-rate Liaison, AgriSA.
Africa Land-Use Training is pre-senting a 5-day accredited train-ing course on Veld Management.This 5-day accredited course aims to train the learner on the prin-ciples and practices needed for good sustainable and profitable
veld/grazing management.All people directly or indirectly involved in land management will benefit from this course. It is an NQF level 4 course and learners receive credit bearing certificates under the jurisdiction of AgriSeta.
When: 16 - 20 October 2017Where: EEC, Pretoria Botanical GardensCost: R4 950.00Presenter: Frits van OudtshoornFor further information:Email: [email protected]: 071 866 1331
Veld Management Course
A hunting dog refers to a canine that hunts with or for humans.
No. 9 DAFFnews September 2017 11
Sector
Recently, the Directorate: Food Safety and Quality Assurance of the Department of Agriculture, For-estry and Fisheries (DAFF) in col-laboration with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) and the National Meteorology Institute of South Africa (NMISA) hosted an international “Train-the-trainer” course aimed at giving basic main-tenance and troubleshooting of analytical instruments used in food and environmental safety monitor-ing and control programmes.
The event is one of the activities of the IAEA’s Interregional Technical Co-operation Project known as INT/5/154, where South Africa is one of the 32 de-veloping countries from the continents of Africa, Asia and South America who participate and are also beneficiaries of the project. The INT/5/154 project was started in April 2016 and will be running for four years. The project aims to capacitate developing coun-tries in the area of food safety testing and monitoring with the view to influ-ence international standard setting bodies.
Ephraim Moruke, laboratory man-ager, explained that the common challenges faced by regulatory labo-ratories in developing countries vary from capital, technology and exper-tise, which tend to obscure their ef-fectiveness in testing for unwanted chemicals in food products and their lower levels of concentration. In turn, the risk of noncompliance to stringent food safety limits for export products
DAFF benefits from “Train-the-Trainer” international courseBy Linda Mabaso
from developing countries is likely to be high. This is a disadvantage for de-veloping countries in terms of interna-tional trade in food products.
“The lack of sufficient scientific data in some instances makes it challeng-ing for developing countries to justify the use of some agrochemicals or the different dosage as compared to de-veloped countries. Developed coun-tries, which are mostly well resourced in terms of financial capital, technol-ogy and expertise easily conducts rig-orous researches to gather scientific data and therefore puts them in an ad-vantageous position in terms of con-tributing to setting of food standards and limits by international standard setting bodies.”
The IAEA INT/5/154 aims to create a platform for developing and devel-oped countries to network and share expertise and strategies towards food testing for regulatory purposes while empowering developing countries to collect reliable scientific data to con-tribute to and influence international standard setting bodies.
The Train-the-Trainer Workshop, hosted by South Africa through DAFF provided theoretical and practical train-ing to a total of 19 international scien-tists and 10 local scientists. Nineteen international delegates from Angola, Botswana, Costa Rica, Chile, Cuba, Bolivia, Honduras, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Mongolia, Morocco, Mozam-bique, Nigeria, Pakistan, Uganda and Venezuela attended the event, while locally, there were eighteen scientists
participating from NMISA, DAFF and the Perishable Products Export Con-trol Board (PPCEB).
NMISA provided theoretical training on basic maintenance and trouble-shooting laboratory instruments for chromatographic and spectroscopic techniques. Six companies (Shimad-zu, Perkin Elmer, Chemetrix, Micro-sep, LECO Africa and Peak Scientific) supported the training workshop by making their training facilities and lab-oratory instruments available for the practical training sessions. As part of the same project, the IAEA INT/5/154, another scientist from DAFF, Nyiko Shiviti whose job is being tasked with pesticide residue analysis, had the privilege of travelling to Singapore as a representative of the department for a five-day programme that looked at three diagnostic techniques as far as pesticide residue is concerned.
“The programme was looking at dif-ferent setups of different countries in terms of pesticide residue in the area of compliance as well as monitoring of vegetables and fruits. However, the es-sence of it all was to teach countries while looking at the available methods used by each country. We explored the Asian reference laboratory through a specialist from Europe who works in a reference laboratory for the Euro zone.”
Throughout the four years of the projects, different activities have been outlined in assisting the developing countries to have an influence on inter-national standard setting bodies.
September 2017 DAFFnews No. 9 12
Sector
Deciduous fruit grower bodies fall-ing under the HORTGRO umbrella signed a Bee and Pollination Char-ter at the HORTGRO Science Tech-nical Symposium 2017, the charter seeks to address the plight of bees in South Africa.
The initiative comes amid a global concern about honey bee populations which have seen drastic declines and fears that the species might face ex-tinction.
The scale of the problem is mas-sive as between 50% and 80% of the world’s food supply – fruit, vegetables, seeds – is directly or indirectly depend-ent on honey bee pollination.
According to HORTGRO Science General Manager, Hugh Campbell, bees are a key part of the industry sup-ply chain and without bees production capacity would be diminished.
“It’s strategically important that they are protected and the Charter forms a framework around which we can en-sure that we can have a sustainable bee population in the South African context,” he said.
The Charter was signed by repre-sentatives of the South African Ap-ple and Pear Producers Association (SAAPPA) and the South African Stonefruit Producers Association (SASPA).
The Western Cape Bee Industry As-sociation representative, Nelson De La Querra said that the agreement will
prevent producers from spraying pes-ticides while bees are active and that chemical representatives will provide products with clear instructions to pro-ducers.
“This is a big breakthrough for the bee farmers … that the producers agree to honour the principles of the Charter and undertake to stick to it,” he said.
The HORTGRO Science Technical Symposium is an annual event which brings together industry players and provides exposure to the latest interna-tional and local deciduous fruit industry research.
Deciduous fruit industry signs Bee and Pollinator Charter
Currently, South Africa exports fresh fruit to Greece while Greece only exports processed fruit and vegetables to South Africa, but the European Union’s ‘Hello Kiwi’ pro-gramme is set to change the situa-tion.
The initial contacts were made last year over the Hostex period at a con-ference at the Gallagher Convention Centre where the buyers from major supermarkets of fresh fruit and veg-etables supported the event and made valuable connections meeting the Greek kiwi producers.
The conference will be held again this year in order to further develop
these connections and make headway to bring kiwi fruit into SA.
According to Panagiotis Dermet-zoglou from the offices of Economic and Commercial Affairs at the Greek embassy in Pretoria, “The fruit growing seasons in the two countries comple-ment each other and create mutual benefits for them. He emphasised that Greece is implementing a roadmap for stabilising the national economy for sustainable growth, which makes it an ideal trading partner.”
“In a world where we all face a wide range of challenges, we definitely need to improve the overall conditions for our two countries to engage and in-
creased trade is, of course, an impor-tant element of this,” he said.
“Kiwi fruit provides high levels of fi-bre, anti-oxidants, and phytonutrients. They are extremely high in vitamin C - which is a powerful anti-oxidant,” said Clinical Nutritionist Nicci Robertson.
Hello Kiwi set to change trade relations between SA and Greece
