Business

As Botswana’s game farming industry grows, professional hunter Luke Blackbeard’s story highlights how wildlife can become both a viable farming enterprise and a tool for conservation. His journey reflects the opportunities and challenges facing the industry.

Celebrating 13 years of partnership, the 2026 Standard Bank Chenin Blanc Top 10 Challenge honoured South Africa’s national heritage white grape variety. Each winning producer receives R25,000 to invest in a social upliftment or community initiative.

In 2013, straight out of high school, Ashleigh Nyambirai was mopping floors at the family bakery and butchery. She was the most junior resource on site. Today, she runs Zimbabwe’s first cattle bank –TN Livestock Trust (TNLT).

In a world of decreasing farm margins, every hectare, every input, and every rand invested must earn its place. This is the philosophy that guides Anton Pelser, the Agri Mpumalanga Young Farmer of the Year 2026. He spoke to Lindi Botha about the data, discipline, and long-term thinking that guides every decision.

Conservation and economic development in the SA wildlife industry do not have to be opposing forces, according to Kgomotso Maphai, director of marketing at Wildlife Ranching South Africa (WRSA). He was speaking during the North West Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Women’s Month High Tea in Rustenburg. Here is an adaptation of his speech.

Just over two years after entering the industry, Mecia Petersen was appointed CEO of the South African Table Grape Industry (SATI). She spoke to Glenneis Kriel about taking a chance, growing into leadership, and why women should not wait until they feel completely ready to pursue an opportunity.

History is full of women who have played crucial and pioneering roles in science, overcoming various barriers to contribute to discoveries and innovations across disciplines. Not all of them are equally known, but someone who deserves to be a household name is Dr Renée Prins, Founding Director CenGen Pty Ltd.

From launching livestock genomics initiatives, to mentoring future scientists, to becoming the first female Head of Department of Animal Science at the University of Pretoria (UP), to leading the South African Society for Animal Science (SASAS), Prof Esté van Marle-Köster’s journey in the agriculture sector has been nothing short of inspirational.

Women and young agricultural entrepreneurs from across Gauteng were recognised at River Meadow Manor in Irene on 14 August 2026 during the Gauteng Women Entrepreneurs Awards and Youth Entrepreneurs Awards. The awards highlight value creation, mentorship and wider participation in the agricultural economy.

In a free market environment, planning is crucial. To make planning possible, official, reliable, accurate, credible, objective and timely crop forecasts are essential to keep the market working. This is where Rona Beukes, a senior statistician in Crop Estimates and Agricultural Statistics in the Directorate: Statistics and Economic Analysis at the Department of Agriculture, has carved a name for herself.

After the closure of Roodeplaat Research Laboratories in 1994, where Karen Nel worked as a biochemist, she, along with two colleagues, founded a vaccine-manufacturing business called Design Biologix.

Mohair Empowerment Trust manager Beauty Mokgwamme spoke to Octavia Avesca Spandiel about her remarkable journey from humble beginnings to empowering emerging farmers to become commercially viable, thereby transforming lives through agriculture.

From growing up in a small Northern Cape town to becoming a pioneering scientist, Dr Marinda Visser expanded her horizons to lead vital national research partnerships, championing biosecurity and mentoring agriculture’s next wave of leaders.

a farm with little more than a single rondavel on it. Today, that property has become Kilima Horned Heritage, a diversified enterprise built around wildlife, tourism and livestock. Henning Naudé spoke to her about building Kilima, learning about an unfamiliar industry, and finding her place as a woman in a traditionally male-dominated sector.

For Fruit South Africa CEO Fhumulani Ratshitanga, leadership isn’t about being the loudest voice in the room. It’s about listening carefully enough to bring different voices together. She spoke to Farmer’s Weekly about the experiences that’ve shaped her leadership, and why trust is the foundation of progress.

By placing training, mentorship, and practical skills at its core, the Mathuba Farming Academy in the village of Ha-Ravele, near Makhado in Limpopo, is equipping farmers to build productive, sustainable, and commercially viable enterprises.

In family farming businesses, the hardest decisions are often about people, not production. At Bergrivier Besproeiing’s ‘Passion for your Farming’ farmers’ day in Paarl, Western Cape, three established farming families shared what it takes to keep both the business and the relationships intact across generations.

Ostrich chick production can be a valuable source of income, but success depends largely on how it is done. Dr Adriaan Olivier shared key considerations with Glenneis Kriel that could make or break such a venture.

The Great Karoo of the 19th century saw the trekking of massive herds of springbok across the region’s arid plains in what was then one of the natural world’s great mammalian migrations. Mike Burgess writes about how these trekbokke defined a region and its people and why they had disappeared by 1900.

At the Madibeng Agri Youth Day on 23 June in Brits, North West, young people were encouraged not to wait for access to land, funding, or government grants before entering the agriculture sector but to instead build their businesses step by step.