This dialogue delves into ways and means of ensuring access to safe and nutritious food for all.

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Professor Sue Walker says that food system failure will result in failure of food security. “And so we have to think about these future stresses. There can be economic stress, there can be institutional failure , there can be some conflict between the different actors and also we have to look at the whole environmental change,” says Walker.

It’s imperative to find solutions for resilience and sustainability in the food systems. “And if we think about the Free State food systems then we know that they have survived for many years. The whole range of the farmers - from the subsistence farmers to the commercial farmers – they’ve survived so that we can learn from their examples and their lessons. She elaborates on the various levels of resilience and the impact that has on households, small-scale and commercial farmers, and at a global level. Therefore, creating and implementing viable policies and procedures are a necessity.

Many of the farmers and stakeholders who partook in the dialogue surfaced the dire need for youth involvement within the sector. Infrastructural rehabilitation alongside farmer protection was also a very prominent point within the dialogue. Government was urged to pay attention to curbing the rate at which water is being polluted by finding and implementing ways that will clean the river water.

She poses five main questions that were worked through to ensure that food resistance and increased food production becomes achievable, to ensure that necessary human resources and skills are acquired, to ensure effective and efficient biosecurity, and to ensure the use of biodiversity to enhance resilience of the food systems.

She ends off by stating that all stakeholders and farmers’ requests, queries and suggestions will be considered and sent through to the national level so as to motivate changes in the areas of need. 

OFM News/Lee Simmons