The MEC for Department Agriculture, Rural Development, Land and Environmental Affairs (Dardlea) Nompumelelo Hlophe, has committed that the information gathered in the Provincial Climate Smart Agriculture Dialogue would be used as a basis to develop action plans, policies and programmes of the Department.
Hlophe, hoping that all participants would be ambassadors for the ideas advocated in the Climate Smart Agriculture approaches.
The Provincial Climate-smart Agriculture Dialogue was held at The Capital Mbombela on November 05 and 06.
The national Department of Agriculture, Land Reform and Rural Development, in collaboration Dardlea, successfully hosted this two-day event that was attended by some farmers, agriculture experts in various fields, researchers and other key stakeholders.
The aim was to share experiences in agricultural resilience and adaptation to natural disasters, and to further discuss the Climate-smart Agriculture Strategic Framework.
Mpumalanga is the third province to host this high-level dialogue, after Limpopo and the Free State.
Hlophe indicated it was noted in the overall discussions that issues of funding, collaboration, awareness, capacity and training, as well as research, came out strongly as important enablers.
“Therefore, Dardlea commits to prioritise disaster risk reduction measures, such as implementing mitigation and adaptation strategies focusing on important elements such as the issuing of weather warnings, awareness creation and response capabilities.”
Hlophe acknowledged all the participants’ contributions, especially the farmer unions.
The unions said the farmers wanted more practical solutions to build resilience be adaptive to the impacts of climate change.
