Africa

About 10 500 head of cattle have died due to a lack of pasture and drinking water in three southern provinces of Zimbabwe, as the worst drought in recent years continues.

Lesotho’s wool and mohair producers have only benefitted slightly from the government’s recent decision to allow other wool and mohair auctioneers and brokers to start competing with the Lesotho Wool Centre.

Extreme drought conditions have reportedly claimed the lives of more than 60 000 head of livestock in Namibia so far this year. This is according to Namibian media reports citing Minister of Agriculture, Water and Forestry Alpheus !Naruseb.

A group of vegetable producers from across Botswana are calling for a permanent ban on imports of tomatoes, potatoes, cabbages, carrots, beetroot and green peppers from South Africa and other vegetable exporting countries.

The Namibia Agricultural Union (NAU) recently welcomed a decision by the country’s authorities to fully suspend the small-stock marketing scheme to allow producers to export without restriction to South Africa.

About 41,2 million people in 13 Southern African countries will suffer food insecurity between now and March 2020, following low rainfall in the 2018/2019 growing season.

The Bembezi Wildlife Conservancy and Portwe farming concern in Zimbabwe remained illegally occupied by the Zimbabwe Republic Police, despite claims by Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa that the country “was open for business”.

The agriculture sector in Africa could lose up to 14 million jobs by 2030 due to heat stress. This was according to a new report by the International Labour Organisation titled, ‘Working on a warmer planet: The impact of heat stress on labour productivity and decent work’.

Dr Rutendo Hwindingwi, also known as the ‘African Realist’, spoke to Glenneis Kriel about the opportunities and pitfalls of doing business in Africa.

Several thousand Lesotho wool and mohair farmers gathered in the capital Maseru on Friday to march to the country’s parliament to hand over a memorandum.

The EU recently launched a US$45 million (about R665,9 million) programme to support the growth of Zimbabwe’s livestock sector.

Wool growers in Lesotho, who had not received an income since March 2018, are now selling their stock to slaughter markets in a desperate attempt to survive.

The Nile Delta in northern Egypt, one of the largest river deltas in the world, is under threat from a rapidly increasing population, climate change, and poor management of garbage and sewage pollution.

The forecast for this year’s maize harvest in Zimbabwe is 776 600t, which was 54% lower than the 2018 output of 1,7 million tons.

The cannabis market in Africa is estimated to be worth around US$37,3 billion (about R545 billion), which is 11% of the total global market for the product.

Reducing tariffs and, more importantly, addressing non-tariff bottlenecks will support further regional trade integration on the African continent, according to a report recently released by the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The devastating effect of the drought in Namibia is clearly illustrated in the Namibia Agricultural Union’s (NAU) first quarter review for 2019.

The Paramount Chief of the Ndiweni people in Zimbabwe’s Matabeleland province, Chief Nhlanhla Felix Ndiweni, has condemned the government’s latest eviction of white farmers in that country.

Agri-technology company Devenish Nutrition, based in Belfast, Northern Ireland, has announced a £1,7 million (about R32 million) investment in agri-services company Sidai Africa based in Kenya.

The Zimbabwean government’s decision to compensate white commercial farmers who lost their land as part of former president Robert Mugabe’s land reform programme was precipitated by pressure from the international community, according to Dr Johan Willemse, independent agricultural economist.