Agribusiness

Explore the latest agribusiness news and insights, covering agriculture markets, farm management, crop and livestock trends, and industry innovations.

Successfully producing quail’s eggs

Elize van Greunen supplies quails and pickled quail eggs to a niche market.

Surviving tough times

Award-winning farmer Steve Botha has managed to remain successful in the niche market he created through innovation, extending his product range, maintaining a close relationship with his clients and growing...

Reducing the distance between farm & fork

Jasmyn in Hartbeespoort has grown from a double garage-size farm stall to a farmers’ market of choice for fresh food lovers in the Gauteng area. The farm and shop are...

Invest in your WORK FORCE

An effective labour management system is one of the most important investments 2011 Agri SA Young Farmer of the Year Gog van der Colff made in his grape and raisin...

Georgia on their minds: Why SA farmers and investors are looking east

The natural beauty isn't the only reason why many agri-investors are eyeing Georgia. During a whirlwind tour as guest of the State Ministry on Diaspora Issues, Farmer's Weekly editor Alita...

New markets for SA farmers

As the economic crisis in Europe closes doors to agri-exporters, markets in other parts of the globe are opening. Robyn Joubert reports on export opportunities in Iran, Australia and Vietnam

Where using bagasse for green energy production works

In Mauritius, the sugar industry co-generates a significant proportion of the country's electricity needs, using bagasse as feedstock.

Rates rumble in Beaufort West

Farmers in Beaufort West are taxed R3 104 (R2 500 after rebates) per annum for each R1 million their farm is worth, while farmers under the adjoining Baviaans municipality are...

Finding water for the Vaal

If nothing is done to increase water availability in the Vaal River water supply system - including clamping down on illegal water use by irrigation farmers - it will be...

Increasing crop yields with trees

Evergreen agriculture combines conservation farming and agroforestry to create what proponents call an 'out of the box solution' to increase crop yield, improve soil, make better use of scarce rainwater...

Size matters

Charl Senekal's achievements over the past 30 years have made him a 'super farmer' - he's got big ideas and the guts to follow them through. He told Robyn Joubert...

Major conservation win for famers

'KwaMandlangampisi' might be a bit of a mouthful, but it's a name to savour because it's the country's first Protected Environment, and it bars an important catchment area from mining....

Harvesters keep American farmers in business

For six months every year, the Eberts family and other contract harvesters are on the road, cutting crops for farmers across the American Midwest, from the Texas border in the...

How banana flour is helping Ugandan farmers

A presidential pilot project in Uganda is using value-adding to exploit a massive banana surplus, producing banana flour with biofuel as a byproduct. Robyn Joubert reports.

Animal improvement ‘needs a rethink’

Kevin Watermeyer, president of the Nguni Cattle Breeders' Society of South Africa, shares his views about the way forward for animal improvement and the future of the Nguni. Heather Dugmore...

Harrison Hope -The Eastern Cape’s first wine estate

American missionaries Ronnie and Janet Vehorn travelled to South Africa to preach to the Xhosa. Now they've fulfilled their dream of establishing the Eastern Cape's first wine estate along the...

Struggling to farm in a land of plenty

Eastern Cape's Umnga flats was once a highly productive commercial farming area. But it slipped into decay in the early 1980s, when commercial farmers were relocated and the farms were...

Power hikes deadhead flower farmer

Once Eskom's poster boy for electrified greenhouse heating, cut-flower farmer David Gates feels he has now been hung out to dry by the state utility. The annual fees he's charged...

Get ready for the spekboom revolution

Cape Town-based entrepreneur Wynand Odendaal says spekboom is ready to take the carbon market by storm – and earn some farmers big money. Roelof Bezuidenhout reports.

Ethanol-from-sugar-beet project in the great Fish River

The planned ethanol-from-sugar-beet project in Cradock looks like it's going ahead. But the farming community has been left divided, with some excited by the prospect of new markets, while others...
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