Organised agriculture’s role to ensure sustained food production amidst the COVID-19 pandemic
28 March 2020
Organised agriculture (Agri SA, AGBIZ, Grain SA, TLU SA) currently serves on the Department of Agriculture’s COVID-19 task team.
This pandemic causes large-scale disruption within South African society. The government has introduced comprehensive lockdown measures to confine the movement of people to a minimum in the hope that it will curb further spreading of the virus.
In countries such as China, Italy, the USA, and others, large numbers of people have been infected, with the death toll in those countries having increased dramatically. In South Africa, the number of cases increase daily. This is a cause for serious concern. As a country, however, we cannot ignore the implications of this virus and we must comply strictly with the lockdown measures.
Essential goods such as all food, cleaning and hygiene products, medical and hospital supplies, fuel and necessities such as airtime, water and electricity, are excluded. This also includes a comprehensive range of services that are essential to ensure that all the necessary products are made available to the market.