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29 February 2024 | Story Leonie Bolleurs | Photo SUPPLIED
Dr Lindie von Maltitz
Dr Lindie von Maltitz spoke at DESTEA’s Free State Investment Conference (27 February), which was hosted on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus. In her presentation, she highlighted, among other points, the advantages of the UFS as a strategic partner in the agricultural sector.

Dr Lindie von Maltitz, a Lecturer in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of the Free State (UFS), contributed to the programme of the Free State Investment Conference (27 February), which was presented by the Department of Economic, Small Business Development, Tourism, and Environmental Affairs (DESTEA).

The primary objective of the conference, held in the Centenary Complex on the UFS Bloemfontein Campus, was to promote the province as an investment destination of choice and to showcase strategic investment projects across different municipalities. Additionally, the conference sought to connect local businesses with local and international investors and opportunities.

Representatives from financial institutions, academic institutions, national and provincial government departments, chambers of commerce, corporates, investors, and embassies attended the conference, which was opened by Councillor Gregory Nthatisi, the Executive Mayor of the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality. The honourable Mxolisi Dukwana, the Premier of the Free State, delivered the keynote address.

The sectors covered by the presentations at this conference included mining and gas extraction, transport and logistics, energy, infrastructure, tourism, and the agriculture and agro-processing sector. Dr Von Maltitz’s presentation, ‘Required investment to improve the performance of the agricultural sector in the Free State’, focused on the latter sector.

Representing the UFS in the session ‘Driving Inclusive Growth and Food Security: Agriculture’ – Dr Von Maltitz first focused on what agriculture in the Free State entails, and how it relates to the rest of the country. She then provided a brief overview of the role and importance of agriculture in the South African and Free State economy, adding to that the advantages that investment in the agricultural sector in the Free State will bring.

Numerous possibilities for investment in the sector

According to Dr Von Maltitz, the agricultural sector in the Free State is of vital importance to its economy. “Our income from agriculture and its related industries is the second largest in the country, after the Western Cape. There are numerous possibilities for investment in the sector, not limited to production, but expanded to the entire agricultural value chain. Connecting with the right strategic partners can ensure the success of investment projects. The UFS can contribute as a strategic partner, bringing knowledge, expertise, research, and local and global networking to the table,” she stated.

The importance of investing in the agricultural sector, according to Dr Von Maltitz, is linked to two of South Africa’s biggest challenges: unemployment and poverty. “Investing in agriculture addresses both of these issues. Jobs are created for both unskilled and skilled labour while producing and processing food. The higher agricultural investment is on the agenda, the better for economic growth in our province and country,” said Dr Von Maltitz.

"With food security for a global population that has expanded from 2,5 billion in 1950 to 7,9 billion in 2021, agriculture and its related industries are the sector that will remain important until time immemorial,” remarked Dr Von Maltitz.

She is of the opinion that the Free State presents many opportunities for this sector. Dr Von Maltitz believes there are very few agricultural products that cannot be produced in the Free State. “For example, fruit produced in our province is market-ready before that of the Western Cape. This allows us to access local and international markets early, when prices are higher due to a supply shortage. Because we have cold temperatures in winter, our area has fewer livestock diseases than those found in other parts of the country,” she added.

“Assured by a supportive policy environment, functional infrastructure, and expert knowledge base, investors can be encouraged to invest in the agricultural sector in the Free State,” said Dr Von Maltitz.

In the Free State, however, the development of the agricultural sector is facing several challenges. In her view, failing infrastructure and load shedding are the biggest problems. “Our roads are among the worst in the country, making timely access to markets more difficult. Load shedding has an enormous impact on any processing facility. Climate change is something we need to incorporate into our planning process, continuously developing new risk management strategies for the sector,” she elaborated.

Advantages of the UFS as a strategic partner

She stated that the Free State is an agricultural hub open to many more possibilities. “Speaking as a representative of the UFS, I want to highlight the advantages for investors of the UFS as a strategic partner. Our Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences is one of the best in the country and offers knowledge, skills, and expertise in every field related to agriculture, including soil scientists, animal scientists, climate scientists, crop scientists, wildlife and grassland scientists, plant breeders and pathologists, agronomists, agrometeorologists, and agricultural economists. The value we offer can be attractive to investors who will be reassured by our competence, as supported in the university’s Vision130, which defines our values, namely excellence, innovation and impact, accountability, care, social justice, and sustainability,” Dr Von Maltitz said.

News Archive

Is milk really so well-known, asks UFS’s Prof. Osthoff
2011-03-17

Prof. Garry Osthoff
Photo: Stephen Collett

Prof. Garry Osthoff opened a whole new world of milk to the audience in his inaugural lecture, Milk: the well-known (?) food, in our Department of Microbial, Biochemical and Food Biotechnology of the Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences.

Prof. Osthoff has done his research in protein chemistry, immuno-chemistry and enzymology at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria and post-doctoral research at the Bowman-Grey School of Medicine, North Carolina, USA. That was instrumental in establishing food chemistry at the university.
 
He is involved in chemical aspects of food, with a focus on dairy science and technology. He is also involved in the research of cheese processing as well as milk evolution and concentrated on milk evolution in his lecture. Knowledge of milk from dairy animals alone does not provide all the explanations of milk as food.
 
Some aspects he highlighted in his lecture were that milk is the first food to be utilised by young mammals and that it is custom-designed for each species. “However, mankind is an opportunist and has found ways of easy access to food by the practice of agriculture, where plants as well as animals were employed or rather exploited,” he said.
 
The cow is the best-known milk producer, but environmental conditions forced man to select other animals. In spite of breeding selection, cattle seem not to have adapted to the most extreme conditions such as high altitudes with sub-freezing temperatures, deserts and marshes.
 
Prof. Osthoff said the consumption of the milk as an adult is not natural; neither is the consumption of milk across species. This practice of mankind may often have consequences, when signs of malnutrition or diseases are noticed. Two common problems are an allergy to milk and lactose intolerance.
 
Allergies are normally the result of an immune response of the consumer to the foreign proteins found in the milk. In some cases it might help to switch from one milk source to another, such as switching from cow’s milk to goat’s milk.
 
Prof. Osthoff said lactose intolerance – the inability of adult humans to digest lactose, the milk sugar – is natural, as adults lose that ability to digest lactose. The symptoms of the condition are stomach cramps and diarrhoea. This problem is mainly found in the warmer climates of the world. This could be an indication of early passive development of dairy technology. In these regions milk could not be stored in its fresh form, but in a fermented form, in which case the lactose was pre-digested by micro-organisms, and the human population never adapted to digesting lactose in adulthood.
 
According to Prof. Osthoff, it is basically the lactose in milk that has spurred dairy technology. Its fermentation has resulted in the development of yoghurts and all the cheeses that we know. In turn, the intolerance to lactose has spurred a further technological solution: lactose-free milk is currently produced by pre-digestion of lactose with enzymes.
 
It was realised that the milks and products from different species differed in quality aspects such as keeping properties and taste. It was also realised that the nutritional properties differed as well as their effects on health. One example is the mentioned allergy against cow’s milk proteins, which may be solved by the consumption of goat’s milk. The nutritional benefits and technological processing of milk aroused an interest in more information, and it was realised that the information gained from human milk and that of the few domesticated species do not provide a complete explanation of the properties of milk as food. Of the 250 species of milk which have been studied, only the milk of humans and a few domesticated dairy animals has been studied in detail.

Media Release
15 March 2011
Issued by: Lacea Loader
Director: Strategic Communication
Tel: 051 401 2584
Cell: 083 645 2454
E-mail: news@ufs.ac.za

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