Biotechnology and Food Technology helps find solutions to challenges facing humankind
The Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology aims to produce research scholars capable of solving environmental, industrial, agricultural, food and health-based problems.
Government has several initiatives to address these challenges, including strategies to improve food security on agricultural improvement and agricultural policies, which support smallholder farmers. The Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology contributes to food security by working towards three of the United Nations’ (UN’s) Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). SDG 4 focuses on quality, inclusive and impactful education, which is provided in both the biotechnology and food technology disciplines, while research activities contribute to food security and societal impact through knowledge in food technology and science, covering SDGs 2 and 3.
food that meets their dietary needs and promotes a healthy life. In South Africa, ten million or more experience the opposite. “Sadly, despite being Africa’s diverse agricultural powerhouse, a large portion of our population experiences food insecurity driven by a lack of sufficient, safe and nutritious food, poverty, inequality and unemployment, and drought and climate change exacerbate the agricultural produce or yields and water availability”. “The high cost of food, lack of resources such as water, land, agricultural productivity challenges, lack of nutrition education, and changing diets are further forces contributing to food insecurity,” she says.
Prof Serepa-Dlamini
Food insecurity affects at least ten million people daily, says Prof Mahloro Hope Serepa- Dlamini, quoting Statistics SA. Serepa-Dlamini, who heads the Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology in UJ’s Faculty of Science, says finding solutions to food security problems should be a collective approach for it to be realised, and the department approaches these solutions in collaboration with various institutions and organisations locally and internationally, she says. Where there is food security, everyone must access sufficient, safe and nutritious
Brewing team
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