Business

Climate volatility is reshaping risk on South African farms. Reviewing your insurance and insured values regularly to ensure they reflect the cost of recovery is essential to maintaining balance sheet resilience.

Driven by technology’s potential to empower producers, 27-year-old Tafadzwa Chikwereti co-founded eAgro, a Zimbabwe-based agritech company combining satellite monitoring, soil science, and artificial intelligence tools to provide local farmers with real-time insights that help them boost yields and farm more sustainably.

Brian Berkman visits one of Durbanville’s oldest farms and is charmed by its transformation and award-winning wines.

Kenyan farmer David Waweru left his pilot career to produce coffee on the family farm. He spoke to Farmer’s Weekly about export markets, farm challenges, and giving back to his community.

Mushroom production is inherently the practice of expanding mycelium. But since wanted and unwanted fungi flourish under the same circumstances, a mushroom farmer’s biggest challenge is ensuring the right fungi prevails. Lindi Botha reports on Rory Brooks’ learning curve.

Social media has opened myriad avenues for reaching consumers through targeted advertising campaigns. However, the algorithms are notoriously tricky, especially when trying to maximise exposure to specific audiences on a set budget.

Regenerative agriculture is often framed as a choice farmers can weigh at their leisure. However, adopting these practices is becoming unavoidable, as sustainability has moved from aspiration to operational baseline, says Zhann Meyer, head of agricultural finance at Nedbank Corporate and Investment Banking.

Karen Swanepoel, executive director of the Southern African Essential Oil Producers’ Association, spoke to Octavia Avesca Spandiel about South Africa’s essential oils industry and its rise from a small niche market to a quality-driven, globally recognised, and fast-growing business.

In farming, success rarely happens by chance. It starts long before a seed is planted or the first raindrop falls. Looking ahead allows producers to make decisions that will shape their future successful harvests.

Roland Urwin, café owner and coffee researcher, spoke to Octavia Avesca Spandiel about how South Africa’s evolving specialty coffee culture mirrors global trends, prioritising craftsmanship, origin, and quality-driven consumer experiences.

Octavia Avesca Spandiel spoke to Adele Cutten, founder of Adele’s Mohair, to explore how a small spinning experiment grew into a thriving rural craft enterprise rooted in South Africa’s rich mohair heritage.

Petri Swart never planned on pursuing a job in agriculture. Yet, his hands-on approach, technical focus, and willingness to challenge conventional raisin production systems has earned him recognition as SA Raisins’ 2025 Young Farmer of the Year.

Village business units registered as commercial agricultural ventures are transforming Zimbabwe’s rural landscape, long associated with subsistence farming.

A platform, PropelMapper, is transforming how agricultural consultants, sales agents and researchers capture and use field data, producing insights that can be shared across teams. Tech entrepreneur Reghardt Pretorius, co-founder of PropelMapper, spoke to Glenneis Kriel about the solution.

Bezalel Wine and Brandy Estate has evolved from a bulk grape supplier to a producer of small-batch, high-quality wines, brandies, and infusions. Martiens Bezuidenhout spoke to Glenneis Kriel about his family’s journey.

A group of Kenyan smallholder women farmers are transforming the country’s high-value coffee sector by pooling their resources.

The National School Nutrition Programme feeds more than nine million school children every day and remains one of South Africa’s most meaningful interventions for supporting learning and reducing hunger. But with strategic partnerships, the programme could do far more, strengthening childhood nutrition while helping to drive transformation across the agriculture sector.

Vanessa Collocott runs a free-range Pekin duck enterprise in Curry’s Post, KwaZulu-Natal. She explains that with a seven-week production cycle, disciplined management, and secure restaurant markets, duck farming provides steady cash flow and a viable diversification option for small-scale farmers.

Managing thousands of bee colonies as a pollination service provider is a complex, logistical feat. Added to the challenge is keeping the swarms fed amid dwindling natural resources and crops that offer little nutrition. Jaco Wolfaardt, commercial beekeeper and founder of Ubusi Beekeeping, spoke to Henning Naudé about keeping the bees and business abuzz.

The success of a farming operation in Botswana is largely due to the accessibilty of equipment and technical backup from reliable service providers, like Agrico.