Prof Andre Oelofse, Food Security Task Team co-leader.

The SERA Food Security Task Team, in collaboration with Tshwane University of Technology, the Agriculture Research Council (ARC) and the Medical Research Council (MRC), recently hosted an International Symposium on the Nutritional Value and Water Use of Indigenous Crops for Improved Livelihoods at the University of Pretoria's Groenkloof Campus.

According to Task Team co-leader, Prof Andrč Oelofse of UP, the symposium is the first of its kind to be held in South Africa and forms part of a five-year contract project that the Task Team is working on with the MRC, ARC and TUT. Aimed at contributing to greater food security by means of increased water productivity in indigenous crop cultivation, the project's specific objectives include reviewing the current nutritional status of the South African population with specific reference to malnutrition, identifying crops to fill the nutritional gaps, and determining the potential effect of the selected crops on nutritional status.

The symposium - which took place from 19 to 20 September - was themed "Fewer drops, More Crops, Most Nutrition" and reflects the need to capture indigenous crops as potential foods to address household food insecurity. According to Prof Oelofse, the symposium's intention was to invite local, African and international experts to shed some light on the potential crops that can best be used in this approach.

Prof Oelofse says that of valuable input towards this goal were the presentations made by Thabo Ramashala and Hlupheka Chabalala of the National Departments of Agriculture and Science and Technology, respectively. "The participants experienced this very positively as it showed that government was also actively pursuing the agenda of promoting indigenous crops as well as indigenous knowledge in general", said Oelofse. According to him, it was also heartening for the project team itself to hear of the work that the government departments had been doing and what crops they had identified in their own programmes.

Also among the programme highlights was invited speaker RR Schippers of the Netherlands who presented a paper called 'Traditional vegetables in Africa', highlighting the global trends and changes in the use of vegetable species - particularly the move towards indigenous food crops. Schippers visited Limpopo's Vhembe district after the symposium with members of the project team where he conducted interviews and investigations for compiling a shortlist of six indigenous crops that may be appropriate for addressing malnutrition. This visit also formed part of the overall project.

Prof Oelofse believes that the symposium proved to be considerably successful in reaching its objectives. "We were hoping to get guidance on what crops would be best suited for use in addressing food insecurity. Although there was some difference of opinion among speakers, I think that it came out quite clearly which crops were considered the best". Though pleased with this outcome, Oelofse says the greatest challenge still remains the identification of drought resistant crops capable of supplying in the micronutrient need of vulnerable groups.

Another factor contributing to the success of the symposium was the combination of the disciplines of nutrition and agriculture. "A lot of participants commented on this as these two disciplines do not share the same platform often enough. Both sides were quite surprised by the large amount of overlap that there is between the two", says Oelofse.

Building on the lessons learned during the symposium, the focus of the project will now split into two, with the agronomy (cultivation and water use) investigations continuing through the rest of this year and the first of the nutrition activities, including a nutrition situation analysis in the area where the team intend carrying out the efficacy trial, will be undertaken predominantly by the UP and MRC project team members.

The Scientific Symposium Committee also plans to submit papers from the symposium to Water SA - the official journal of the Water Research Commission.

For more information on the symposium or to obtain a copy of the Volume of Papers, contact Prof Andrè Oelofse on +27 12 420 6030.