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26 May 2008

In response to the current global food price crisis, the KwaZulu-Natal Agriculture and Environmental Affairs Department will be hosting a three-day Provincial Agricultural Co-operatives Summit whose sole objective is to strengthen the agricultural co-operatives in the province thus ensuring that vulnerable communities continue to benefit from the Department's Food Security Programmes.

Among the topics to be deliberated during the summit include markets and exports, value chain market opportunities in the European Union, the role played by co-operatives in ensuring that there is food security. In addition to the above, delegates will also deliberate on challenges and opportunities for micro-financing of rural co-operatives and other funding mechanisms.

International experts on the agricultural co-operative movement drawn from Africa and Europe will deliver papers on best practices and successful models of agricultural co-operatives during the three-day summit.

"This week's summit comes in the wake of the current high food price crisis around the globe and the attendant negative effect brought about by rising fuel costs and as the lead Department tasked with fighting the scourge of poverty it is incumbent upon us that we institute measures that will mitigate the unintended consequences of the current global food price crisis," said KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Agriculture and Environmental Affairs Mtholephi Mthimkhulu.

MEC Mthimkhulu said the Department has on-going Food Security Projects whose principal objectives are to provide livelihood means to vulnerable communities particularly in the rural areas of the province while at the same create sustainable agricultural small-macro-medium enterprises (SMME).

"However, the sustainability of these Food Security programmes together with the gains that have been made as a result of the interventionist impact they have had on vulnerable communities in the province will be seriously reversed or eroded if left unchecked because of the current global food prices crisis," warned Mthimkhulu.

Members of the media are invited to cover this historic summit whose outcomes are undoubtedly will go a long way in mitigating both short-and long-term negative effects brought about by the current food price crisis on vulnerable communities of KwaZulu-Natal.

The details of the summit are as follows:

Date: Tuesday 27 May, Wednesday, 28 May and Thursday, 29 May
Venue: Zululand Chamber of Business Foundation (ZCBF), Richards Bay
Time: Proceedings will commence at 9h00 every day.

For enquiries please contact:
Mbulelo Baloyi
Cell: 082 415 7277

Issued by: Department of Agriculture and Environmental Affairs, KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
26 May 2008