The Southern African Agri Initiative (SAAI) has embarked on an international social mobilisation campaign to put pressure on the United Nations (UN) to strengthen safety and security on farms.
With on-farm crimes ranging from murder and assault to rape and other forms of sexual violence, the SAAI believes it is a major threat to global food production.
SAAI chief executive Francois Rossouw said that the launch of the UN’s Decade of Family Farming initiative, covering 2019 to 2028, was the ideal opportunity to highlight to the world just how serious the problem of on-farm crime was, not only in South Africa, but in a number of other countries around the world as well.
The South African Police Service (SAPS) recently released an annual crime report, which includes farm murder crime stats for the 2018/2019 year, ending March 2019, which indicates that there were 47 farm murders in 41 recorded incidents. According to the report, robberies made up 22 of the incidents, while seven were classified as attempted murders.
Rossouw explained that crimes against family farming operations also amounted to economic sabotage, ultimately resulting in increased food and fibre prices for consumers. He further explained that the UN and its agencies were aware that family farming operations were ideally placed to take on the global challenges of famine, unemployment and migration. “However, the world can’t expect family farmers to carry this huge responsibility when their own governments aren’t even willing to prioritise their safety,” said Rossouw. – Zoe van Rooyen.
