Moloto was speaking at the provincial Food Security Summit (FSS), themed “Freedom and Hard Work”, which was held in Polokwane on Tuesday, 20 May 2008.
“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:
Resolutions of the medium term interventions:
The long term interventions:
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.
Article published courtesy of BuaNews