The devastating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic have adversely affected all facets of human life.
These effects are felt across the globe – from health challenges leading to hospitalisation and even death, loss of income and/or employment and hunger and malnutrition, to an increase in external debt and food security challenges.
Arising from the health challenges due to Covid-19, nations were forced to implement very stringent measures to control the spread.
North-West University (NWU) academic Prof Olubukola Oluranti Babalola looked at the impact of Covid-19 on food security in South Africa during a National Science Week webinar on 4 August 2021.
Prof Babalola says Covid-19 containment strategies affected food supply chains in relation to agricultural production and its transportation.
“Most countries out-rightly suspended the export of produce as a food protection measure,” she adds.
She explains that food security exists when there is physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet an individual’s dietary needs for an active and healthy life.
Prof Babalola says although South Africa may have food security at a national level, many households in the country still suffer from food insecurity.
“More recently, about 6,6 million people in South Africa were faced with severe hunger due to the measures implemented to curtail Covid-19. The critical question to answer is which resilience approaches should we follow to decrease the negative influence of this public health pandemic on food security in South Africa?
“The proper response to this crisis is to put policies and actions in place to ensure minimal disruptions in the country’s agricultural production and food supply chain. Also, science-based approaches should be followed, such as strengthening capacity for local production of farm produce and agro-products for food security and sustainability,” she adds.
“Families and communities should be encouraged to grow their own produce to be food secure and even create a source of income.
“The sustainable deployment of innovative biotechnological techniques, climate-smart agricultural practices, and the use of controlled environments for all-year-round agricultural production should also be encouraged,” says Prof Babalola.
About the presenter
Prof Olubukola Oluranti Babalola is a National Research Foundation-rated scientist and a graduate of the NWU Business School.
She obtained a PhD in microbiology with the Visiting Research Fellowship of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture and the Postgraduate Training Fellowship of the Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World(OWSD).
She joined the NWU as senior lecturer in 2009, and has since risen through the ranks to a full professor. Prof Babalola is currently the director of the Food Security and Safety research niche area, and is the vice-president of the OWSD (Africa region).
Prof Olubukola Oluranti Babalola
