Agriculture
#BloemShow: Traceability comes under scrutiny during panel discussion─── ELSABÉ RICHARD 05:30 Wed, 04 May 2022
Foot and mouth disease (FMD) in South Africa has been an ongoing topic of discussion in the red meat industry, especially since positive cases have now been detected in five provinces.
During a panel discussion on Tuesday where AgriVoice and the North West University (NWU) Business School took hands as hosts at this year’s Bloem Show, the FMD management policy came under the loop.
See PODCAST below
One of the panellists, Professor Joseph Lekunze, is a research professor at the NWU Business School, as well as an agricultural economist.
ALSO READ: Agri podcast: Be cautious of foot and mouth disease - Department
He highlighted that traceability in the red meat industry seems to be an issue within South Africa. This, as partners within the industry are not working together, and he describes them as being disjointed because they all have different interests. However, one thing that is common among the feedlots, auction houses and small scale farmers is FMD, which results in financial and cattle losses.
Lekunze is of the opinion that these different sections within the industry need to work together and ramp up biosecurity and look at whether the current biosecurity is up to date, as well as look at “what are the feedlots and auction houses doing with respect to biosecurity. The second thing is the government’s support in terms of vaccination.
ALSO READ: Wool industry heavily impacted by China’s ban on imports due to FMD
“In our discussion, we discovered that the government tends to be reactive rather than proactive. Normally animals are supposed to be vaccinated, I think, after every three months to prevent such outbreaks.
“But the animals can go for a year without being vaccinated – it’s only once there’s an outbreak then the government [and the industry] tend to react. We know the disease is there, we know there’s going to be an outbreak, there are vaccines available, so what are the government and industry doing to prevent the outbreak?”
Here is a list of more panel discussions at Bloem Show this week:
4 May, 11h00 Managing the ups and downs of family farming | |
Chair | Panel |
| Mr Oarabile Manyaapelo | • Prof Stephan van der Merwe (NWU Business School) • Dr Theo de Jager (President, World Farmers' Association) • Mr Neels Grobbelaar (Director, T Roos Accountants) |
4 May, 15h00 The hidden figures of farming: exploring the potential of women in farming | |
| Prof. Leenta Grobler | • Ms Izet Haasbroek (AKZENTO) • Ms Johanna Manyaapelo (NWU Business School) • Ms Augusta Minnaar (VDM-MINNAAR) |
5 May, 11h00 Infrastructure challenges in agri-business (ports, rail and roads): exploring opportunities for public private partnerships | |
| Prof. André Duvenhage | • Dr Jack Armour (Commercial head, Free State Agriculture) • Mr Willem Joubert (MD, Tshepega Civil Engineering) • Mr Thina Nodada (CEO, Waymaker Global Trade Solutions) |
5 May, 15h00 Exploring exporting opportunities in farming: How to ensure growth and sustainability? | |
| Dr Piet Croucamp | • Mr Thina Nodada (CEO, Waymaker Global Trade Solutions) • Dr Johnny van der Merwe (Agricultural Economist, NWU |
The theme of the panel discussions is: Making business sense of agri-business.
“The goal of these discussions is to promote the modernisation of, and investment in, agri-business and farming.”
Panel discussions can be attended at no cost at the Bloem Show in the Country Kitchen restaurant, under the main pavilion until 5 May.
