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...
Communal land: a breeding ground for corruption
A law privatising millions of hectares of communal land has been held up for years by court action and opposition from traditional leaders. In the meantime, pressure on adjacent commercial...
Empowerment: the secret to its success
'You're either in, or you're out!' Glenneis Erasmus reports on the Hex River Valley farmers and farmworkers who are 'in' and making transformation work.
An agricultural odyssey Down Under
It's big, it's flat, it's a land of extremes - including blistering droughts. But while farming remains a fundamental part of Australian life, it has taken a heavy toll on...
Living his farming dream among sticks and stones
'Farming is not for sissies', says emerging commercial farmer André Thops of Olyfkloof farm in the Hex River Valley. He sites the lack of cash flow and access to funds...
