How South Africa is strengthening biosecurity to tackle disease outbreaks
Agricultural Minister John Steenhuisen and UP Vice-Chancellor Professor Francis Petersen during the National Biosecurity Summit this month.
Image: Supplied
Major changes in how South Africa prevents and deals with outbreaks of plant and animal diseases, including foot-and-mouth disease, could be on the horizon.
These include possible new biosecurity legislation, criminal prosecution of those who flout regulations and protocols, the introduction of a traceability system, and increasingly close collaboration among government, industry, academia, and civil society.
These were among the longer-term solutions proposed by Agriculture Minister John Steenhuisen at the National Biosecurity Summit held at the University of Pretoria (UP) this month.
The event took place against the backdrop of foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks in Gauteng, KwaZulu-Natal, and Mpumalanga, which agricultural economists predict will cost the economy dearly unless the country responds proactively.
Experts suggest that long-term solutions are key, rather than merely reacting when a plant or animal disease breaks out.
The broader aim of the summit was to develop a new five-year national biosecurity strategy under the theme 'Collaborative actions for food security and trade'. 'Robust biosecurity has to be practised at all times, not just during a threat or disease outbreak,' said UP Vice-Chancellor Professor Francis Petersen.
Steenhuisen was, meanwhile, open to introducing more agile legislation in the form of a dedicated biosecurity act with an offence code, and proposed working with the National Prosecuting Authority, Department of Justice, and the police to enforce laws and regulations.
'Biosecurity protocols are very important, but the laxity of enforcement has often led to people treating them as optional extras rather than as mandatory,' Steenhuisen said.
He also noted that a recent animal auction at Utrecht in KwaZulu-Natal had fuelled the spread of foot-and-mouth disease. 'We have taken a decision to pursue criminal charges against those individuals,' he said.
His department is also going ahead with the introduction of a traceability system to monitor the movement of animals from 'farm to ship'.
International markets demanded traceability, and South Africa had to move forward accordingly or risk languishing in the 'backwaters of international trade', he said.
Emphasising the need for trust, transparency, and inclusivity to strengthen biosecurity in the country, Steenhuisen said it was crucial to work not only with big producers but also subsistence and small-scale farmers, including those on tribal trust and communal land.
Wandile Sihlobo, chief economist of the Agricultural Business Chamber of South Africa, meanwhile, said biosecurity 'is the bedrock of anything we do in agriculture because we export about half of what we produce in this country'.
He noted that the agricultural sector brings in R250 billion a year from exports, has R220 billion invested in bank loans, and employs about 1.3 million people.
Sihlobo cautioned that in the current international trading environment, 'everyone is looking for anything to block your products from entering their country'.
Biosecurity lapses could reinforce that trend, even for product lines not directly affected by a disease outbreak, he said.
He added that non-tariff barriers will be the talk of the day in the next couple of years, and 'if you are a country that is consistently in the news about outbreaks, they will make things difficult for you.'
He also warned that it is unlikely that domestic consumption can expand to compensate for any drop-off in exports of high-end products such as wine, grapes, and red meat.
'Domestic consumption levels are as good as they are going to get,' Sihlobo said, adding that it would be wrong to underestimate 'how badly the South African consumer is hurting'.
Biosafety must therefore be front and centre of agricultural policy and practice, not just for animal health but also plant health, too, he said.
zelda.venter@inl.co.za
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