Minister John Steenhuisen opening remarks at the Agriculture working group meeting

Opening remarks.
Honourable Premier of KwaZulu-Natal,
Honourable Deputy Minister of Agriculture,
Honourable MEC for Agriculture and Rural Development in KwaZulu-Natal,
Deputy Mayor of eThekwini,
Distinguished delegates from G20

Fellow Ministers, colleagues, development partners, members of the media, ladies and gentlemen:
Good afternoon.
It is both an honour and a privilege to welcome you to Durban - one of Africa’s great port cities - as we officially open the G20 Agriculture Working Group under South Africa’s 2025 Presidency. This is a moment of both urgency and opportunity.

Urgency, because food insecurity, climate volatility, and systemic exclusion continue to threaten the stability of global food systems.

Opportunity, because never has the world had such scientific insight, technological capacity, and a shared policy platform to do something about it.

This is a defining time for agriculture — not only in South Africa, but across our continent and the world.
South Africa assumes the chair of this working group at a moment where the pressures on global food systems are undeniable.

We are dealing with rising input costs, unpredictable climate shocks, and constrained fiscal spaces - all of which are being felt first and most severely by small-scale producers, women farmers, and the rural poor.
Yet within these challenges, there is also real opportunity:

• To change the terms of inclusion in agricultural markets
• To build resilience not only into our systems, but into our institutions
• And to connect innovation with impact at the scale and speed that this moment demands

But we also come into this role with confidence - rooted in our partnerships with many of you, and in our commitment to four core priorities that form the backbone of this Working Group’s agenda, namely:

• Inclusive market participation: ensuring that smallholders, women, youth, and marginalised communities are no longer on the periphery of food systems, but firmly at the centre.
• Empowerment of youth and women: not as beneficiaries of development, but as drivers of agricultural transformation and innovation.
• Technology and innovation transfer: particularly to bridge the gap between those who invent and those who need access to those inventions; and
  Climate resilience: building systems that can feed the world without destroying the ecosystems that support them.

These are not just South Africa’s priorities, they reflect a shared global concern. And they speak directly to the Sustainable Development Goals, the AU’s Agenda 2063, and the urgent need to make agriculture part of the solution to today’s complex challenges.

There is no overstating the role agriculture plays in our world.
It feeds families, fuels economies, and stabilises communities. But to unlock its full potential, we must move beyond good intentions. Beyond rhetoric. And toward the kind of practical collaboration that enables lasting change.

We must be honest: the benefits of agricultural development have not been shared equally. Not within countries. And not between them.

This is our opportunity to rethink the structures that keep the majority of producers - especially women and young people - on the margins of the sector.

If the G20 is to be a platform of leadership, then this working group must be a space of listening. Of designing policies with, not just for, the people most affected. Of bringing real accountability into the promises, we make.

In my view, the value of this forum lies not in how many resolutions we pass, but in what happens after the meetings are over - in the policies we implement, the partnerships we build, and the resources we mobilise.
And we must recognise that the future of agriculture will not be shaped only by ministries or multilateral agencies. It will be shaped by people - on farms, in cooperatives, in labs, and in households - who make decisions every day based on the systems we help shape here.

South Africa is committed to an approach that is inclusive, transparent, and focused on action. As host country and Chair of this Working Group, we are deeply committed to ensuring that this Working Group becomes a platform for collective ambition, practical collaboration, and long-term transformation.

We don’t bring perfect answers - but we bring a deep belief in agriculture’s power to transform lives. And we believe that if we work together - with humility and purpose- we can build a future in which agriculture feeds not just stomachs, but economies, ecosystems, and futures.

Let us begin the work 
Thank you.
Ngiyabonga.
Baie dankie.