Dr Joyce Chitja appointed as ARC deputy chairperson

Dr Joyce Chitja of the African Centre for Food Security (ACFS) in the School of Agricultural, Earth and Environmental Sciences (SAEES) has been appointed deputy chairperson of the board of the Agricultural Research Council (ARC) for a three-year term.

Chitja has been an ARC board member for two terms.  This is her third term where she will serve in this new role.  She said she is honoured to be appointed to this new role.

‘I feel positive in this new role despite the enormous challenges that agriculture  is facing in the country and globally.   The ARC team I serve alongside, are capable and highly committed; some of the country’s best scientists are working in the ARC,’ she said.

‘I see it as a serious responsibility as the ARC is a state-owned entity responsible for agricultural research and for upholding food security in the country, in every sphere of agriculture,’ said Chitja.

Chitja’s responsibilities will involve supporting the strategic goals of the ARC, while also filling a second role as chair of the ARC’s Research, Development and Evaluation Committee.

UKZN Vice Chancellor, Dr Albert van Jaarsveld issued a statement to the University Community congratulating Dr Joyce Chitja on her appointment as the Deputy Chairperson of the ARC Board. He said: “Dr Chitja, a lecturer at UKZN’s African Centre for Food Security, was recently appointed to this important position by the Minister of Agriculture, Forestry & Fisheries (DAFF), Mr Senzeni Zokwana. The Agricultural Research Council plays a vital role in supporting the agricultural sector and conducts research with partners, develops human capital and fosters innovation in support of the sector.

Dr Chitja’s experience as an agricultural scientist and food security expert with a rich understating of agriculture in South Africa especially the challenges facing the small-scale farming sector, will no doubt be of great value to the ARC Board.  Her experience ranges from research in organic production, agricultural development, land reform, the land claims process and its challenges. Her current research areas include Food Security in relation to organic farming production, small-scale farmer value chains, water and livelihoods, gender & agriculture, land reform and vulnerability.

In 2008 Dr Chitja was one of the first two students to graduate from the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s Food Security programme with a doctorate in Food Security.

After two short stints of working in government, she re-joined UKZN in 2010 as a lecturer and later was appointed as the Acting Director of the African Centre for Food Security. She also sits on the board of the Agribusiness Development Agency (ADA).

Dr Chitja is very passionate about uplifting smallholder farmers particularly women farmers and has worked with the communities of Centocow outside Bulwer and Swayimani in Greytown.

The appointment to the ARC Board is in recognition of the excellence and passion with which Dr Chitja conducts her work.  UKZN is proud of researchers like Dr Chitja because their work not only seeks to make an increasing intellectual impact internationally, but it mainly serves to benefit society in terms of addressing immediate challenges and societal needs.

We are confident that she will serve the ARC Board with distinction as she continues to do here at UKZN. We wish Dr Chitja all the best in her very important new role.

Her current research areas  explores smallholder farming systems with regards to value chains, land and water use security and access, livelihoods, vulnerability,  household food security,  gender and empowerment.   She has been successfully written and been awarded multi-year and multi-million-rand research projects from the Water Research Commission, enabling the studies of her postgraduate students.

Chitja says her current focus and a source of great joy is her supervision of postgraduate students; two of her students graduate cum laude in April 2017, and have continued their into Doctoral studies. Her student team, she says, are looking at small-scale agriculture and Food Security in a different way, and are steadily earning recognition for the good quality research they produce by publishing and presenting at national and global conferences.

Chitja is also part of an international team on the organising committee for the third International Conference on Global Food Security, taking place in Cape Town in December 2017, where she will chair a theme and has been involved in selecting papers.

Source University of Kwazulu Natal