News

A devastating wildfire that raged on 11 farms in the Otjiwarongo district, in the northern part of Namibia late last month, destroyed 30 000ha of grazing over a period of three days.

Despite a recent agreement between the EU and the US on lobster tariffs, it is unlikely to be followed soon by similar accords, given transatlantic differences about agriculture, EU vice-president Valdis Dombrovskis has said.

South Africa’s largest commercial farmers’ organisation, Agri SA, has announced changes to its executive leadership, which will see Christo van der Rheede, deputy executive director at Agri SA, replace Omri van Zyl as the new executive director, while Van Zyl will take up the role of CEO for the budding business unit, Agri SA Enterprises.

The biodiversity cost of the world’s expanding population and economic output has been significant. According to the World Wide Fund for Nature’s (WWF) ‘Living Planet Report 2020’, which was published recently, while more food and energy than ever before were being supplied, the over-exploitation of plants and animals was increasingly eroding nature’s ability to provide them in the future.

A 49-year-old man has been detained on charges of public violence following the protest action at Fairview Racecourse near Port Elizabeth on Thursday, 17 September.

A Boer goat ram from the Lukas Burger Boer Goat Stud near Griekwastad has been sold for a record price of R375 000 during the stud’s 22nd production sale, which took place at GWK auction pens in Kimberly on Wednesday, 16 September.

An incident at Fairview Racecourse in Port Elizabeth, in which a race horse has reportedly been slaughtered by protestors, is a “sad, sad situation”.

The production and marketing of South Africa’s cut flowers are struggling to recover from the negative impact of the COVID-19-related national and international lockdowns.

It is hoped that a recent High Court judgement will ensure that municipal wastewater treatment works cease polluting nearby freshwater and land resources.

Chinese and South Korean authorities have announced that pork imports from Germany will be banned after the first case of African swine fever (ASF) was confirmed there in the second week of September.

The global 2020 macadamia crop suffered a blow as yields dropped 3% amid unfavourable weather conditions. Although sales have, for the most part, held firm over the past few months, this reduction in supply could serve to benefit farmers in terms of prices paid for the nuts.

The Grain Research Programme has been established to directly engage with grain stakeholders in an attempt to initiate research that will support the sector by identifying future challenges and exploring solutions, including extension and disease/pest diagnostic services.

South Africa is expecting a bumper blueberry harvest this season, but difficulties with air freighting are posing a challenge for exporters.

South Africa's economy took a not unexpected nosedive during the second quarter of 2020, a period that contained the lion’s share of the country’s five-week long hard lockdown which brought a halt to most economic activity.

The price of rooibos has fallen from an all-time record of R67/kg in 2018, to the lowest in years this season, due to supply and demand being out of sync.

"We knew it was going to be something really special. He was just an outstanding animal, backed up by all the best genetics. There were about seven or eight people who really, really wanted him and that's what led to the price.

The 2020/2021 production forecast for winter grains is looking promising, with bumper crops expected after difficult production conditions during the previous season.

Livestock farmers have been warned to take the necessary precautions to safeguard their animals, as the windy and cold weather conditions currently being experienced across most parts of country are expected to persist for the rest of the week.

The global agriculture sector has been undergoing a radical transformation in recent years, and researchers around the world are increasingly looking at alternative farming opportunities, such as seaweed farming and other mariculture operations.

Any gains intended by South Africa’s Poultry Sector Master Plan to reinvigorate the country’s long-ailing broiler value chain will be severely compromised should large-scale dumping of imported chicken meat onto the local market resume.