THE delegates who attended the Agricultural Expansion Week conference agreed that by working together they can protect Africa’s food security.
But the chairwoman of the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services, Ruth Oniang’o, said she believes nothing will happen while there’s still corruption and bad governance on the continent.
Oniang’o was speaking at a packed conference room at the Elangeni Hotel in Durban on Monday.
She said: “It’s a shame that we have brilliant ideas that can do away with the effect of climate change and disasters.
“But ongoing corruption in our governance on the African continent is making the innovation and transformation impossible.”
No development will be seen on the continent, she said, if greed and selfishness among leaders resulted in money intended to benefit the agricultural sector failing to reach farmers.
Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Senzeni Zokwana told Daily Sun that corruption was one of their biggest
worries.
He said they were working on ways of getting rid of it.
“As the government we are working on getting teams that will make sure that funds that are dedicated to improving the agricultural sector, as well as developing skills of the small farmers, reach them without any deductions,” he said.
Zokwana said they were planning to change ways of sending grants to farmers to make sure they get those funds and improve their businesses.
“We’re working on tasking a team that will sit down and discuss new ways of funding farmers without the farmers being robbed of what they’re supposed to get,” he said.
One of the sugarcane farmers from the Underberg region in the KZN Midlands, Mluleki Ndwandwe (65), said he came to the conference to learn about ways of preparing for natural disasters such as flooding and drought. His farm was badly hit by the recent drought.
