The national Food and Nutrition Security Plan will be ready for implementation this month, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Minister Senzeni Zokwana announced on Wednesday.

“Plans are afoot and already well-advanced in developing the Food and Nutrition Security Implementation Plan for the policy. The Implementation Plan will be ready by March 2015.

“The blueprint document (the policy) also prescribes a Centre of Excellence to conduct research on food and nutrition-related matters and to build capacity on these aspects in the country,” he said.

Speaking at the 2015 Grain SA congress in Bothaville in the Free State, Zokwana said the University of Pretoria has since been bestowed with this responsibility to illuminate the country and also to serve as a torchbearer in this regard. 

The department, in collaboration with the Department of Social Development, put together a National Policy on Food and Nutrition Security, which was approved by Cabinet in September 2013.

The main objective of the policy is to integrate and coordinate all food and nutrition security programmes in the country championed from different ministries and private partners.

The Minister said the current scale of the drought and its impact will change quite a few of his department’s priorities.

“I am concerned that this drought will also impact on our ability to produce next season. For that, I need your input and support, not just as farmers but also as those involved in the value chain (banks, input suppliers and agribusinesses).

“This is a disaster for the whole sector, not just the farmers. Without the farmers there will be no sales next year. Without production there is no food. We are in this together,” he said.

Zokwana said his department will convene a group of experts to put together some action plans to overcome the challenge.

“I would like to call on the leaders of the value chain to participate with intent and not to regard it as just a talk shop.

“Our farmers are the best in the world and we owe it to them to keep them in production. You have fed us for many years and now is the time to step up and assist you to do what you do best,” he said.

While the focus might have been on sustainable production during the land reform process, Zokwana said government also needs to allocate time and resources to maintain sustainable production.

He said while Rural Development and Land Reform Minister Gugile Nkwinti will focus on land reform, he will assist to ensure sustainable production.

Zokwana said Grain SA has set the benchmark. “The results are impressive, but we now have to step up and move from the training phase to commercial production phase. You need to assist those [emerging] farmers that are going to get loans.

“I call upon the Grain Trusts to continue with their partnerships with Grain SA to have sustainable production during the time of transition in agriculture,” he said.