Bringing up broilers
Robyn Joubert visited Hanbury Chickens, a family-run broiler business in KwaZulu- Natal. Modest and efficient, the Hanburys use modern methods to get the most out of their birds - guaranteeing...
Why we can’t lose the renosterveld
As it made way for the sprawling croplands of the Western Cape, renosterveld became synonymous with agricultural non-productivity, earning itself names like uitvalgrond. But, as Odette Curtis writes, this shrinking...
Sizwe’s stud success
In 1994 Sizwe Manjezi acquired some 900ha near Peddie in the Eastern Cape to expand his family tradition of cattle farming. Even though he's at the helm of a respected...
Fighting cross-border stock theft: making a way of a will
Feeling let down by government policing efforts, a group of farmers in rural KwaZulu-Natal have established their own innovative and successful system to fight stock theft between the province and...
Orange spuds feeding the nation
In South Africa's rural areas children have alarmingly low levels of vitamin A, which can result in infections, blindness and even death. To combat this critical deficiency, researchers suggest the...
CDs to save the grapes
Dieter Sellmeyer of Lynx Wines, a small boutique winery near Franschhoek, believes CDs are for the birds - metaphorically, not literally.
Food for restitution thought?
The Popela judgment by the Constitutional Court is probably the most important legal benchmark in land reform law since the Richtersveld ruling in 2004. It has widened the definition of...
Gwanya hands over 32 000 hectares of Tenbosch
Some 32 000 hectares of land worth R1 billion was officially handed over recently to four communities as part of the Greater Tenbosch land claim in Mpumalanga's deep rural Nkomazi...
Communities now own 75% of St Lucia Wetland Park
Land claims on the world heritage site, Greater St Lucia Wetland Park (GSLWP) in northern Zululand, are being settled quickly and amicably between affected parties.
Communal cattle farming: culture versus competition
Over 50% of all stock in the Eastern Cape belong to communal farmers, which is why efforts are being made to absorb these animals into mainstream marketing channels and to...
‘We feel secure’
With the option of buying a controlling share in Kanhym Estates, one of South Africa's most successful agribusinesses, empowerment consortium Kgomo Kgolo seems to have done a good job in...
Can New Hair undo CMH damage?
At the recent mohair producers' conference held in Port Elizabeth in early June, the buying houses, for once, were not the hot topic of debate. Gordon Wright was there and...
Cultivating effective young black farmers
Independent agricultural education institutions catering to the black youth could be an answer to our land reform failures. With the financial support of private corporations and the mentorship of successful...
Aloes alleviate poverty in the Eastern Cape
Cape Aloes (Aloe ferox) in the Eastern Cape have provided the Xhosa people with medicinal and cosmetic necessities for hundreds of years. Recently their value has been recognised in helping...
Gauteng agriculture is going great guns
To most people Gauteng would not bring to mind the image of lush crop fields or technologically advanced agriculture. Yet the Gauteng Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Environment (GDACE) has...
Estate cultivates its greatest asset: its workforce
Farmers have been suffering accusations of human rights violations of employees. However, an Agri Wes-Cape survey last year revealed that most farmers in the Western Cape invest more in their...
Learn, earn and come back to farm
Young South Africans appear to be in high demand in the United States, especially as seasonal farmworkers.
Stock theft tops the agenda, but solutions are in sight
Sheep farming in KwaZulu-Natal is reeling from the effects of rampant stock theft, and as a result many farmers have either switched to cattle farming or left agriculture altogether. Issue...
Bumper harvest as farmers rise above race
Too often the South African dream of a united, prosperous farming sector has turned into a nightmare of land invasions, boundary disputes and farm murders. Now a small community of...
No to half-baked habitats
This is the first in a series of five articles on habitat planning in which habitat designer and wildlife biologist Ben Breedlove explains how to create a fully functional and...
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