News

African horse sickness (AHS) cases are increasing in Gauteng while vaccines have been unavailable since last year, according to reports. Onderstepoort Biological Products (OBP), which is responsible for manufacturing the vaccines, has allegedly been without stock for several months.

Industry stakeholders have expressed concern over the lack of tenure security provided for in a new bill on communal land.

South Africa is set to deliver another bumper crop of macadamia nuts this year, surpassing last year’s total yield of 68 840t dry-nut-in-shell at 1,5% moisture, to reach nearly 78 000t.

The Western Cape recently became the first province to formally launch a Cannabis Framework and Implementation Plan (CanPlan) for the agriculture sector.

Small-scale crop farmers in the Zambezi region of Namibia recently called on the Namibian government to compensate them for the actual value of crops destroyed by wildlife such as elephants and hippos.

Farmer groups in Italy have welcomed a government-backed bill tabled in that country’s parliament that could ultimately result in the banning of laboratory-produced meat and other synthetic food.

The latest grain crop estimate released by the Crop Estimates Committee (CEC) shows an increase in yields for most grain crops in South Africa, alleviating fears that erratic weather would have curtailed the harvest. This means South Africa will have sufficient staple food supplies in the 2023/24 marketing year.

A major part of Namibia is experiencing an acute drought, with the situation particularly serious south of the capital, Windhoek, with little or no rain received during the 2022/23 rainy season. According to Thinus Pretorius, chairperson of Namibia’s Livestock Producers’ Organisation, some parts south of Keetmanshoop had not received any rain.

The Competition Commission (CompCom) recently launched the Fresh Produce Market Inquiry to identify features that could impede, distort or restrict competition along the fresh produce value chain.

The shortage of snakebite antivenom in South Africa was a source of serious concern as this threatened the lives of animals and humans, according to Johan Marais, CEO of the African Snakebite Institute.

Red meat production has once again come under fire, this time in a study detailing a pathway for South Africa to achieve its goal of achieving net-zero carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions by 2050.

The lack of regulations over terminology for alternative protein products is causing confusion about food labels worldwide and has already led to several court cases in South Africa.

Twenty-six percent of the world’s population still does not have access to safe drinking water, while 46% lack access to basic sanitation, according to the United Nations World Water Development Report 2023, released on Tuesday ahead of the United Nations Water Conference, which started in New York today.

Retail prices for ginger have sunk as low as R30/kg as ample rains have diminished quality and larger volumes flow into the market.

Food price pressures that have beset Zimbabwe have persisted, giving the Southern African country the unenviable position of having the world’s worst inflation, despite some slight moderation, a recent report by the World Bank showed.

The UN-brokered deal that has created a protected sea transit corridor for grain exported from Ukraine's three ports on the Black Sea expires later this month.

Advances in gene sequencing are uncovering a wealth of information that will have far-reaching consequences for stable, ongoing food production.

The Land Expropriation Bill will not be used “willy-nilly”, President Cyril Ramaphosa recently said in response to questions in the National Assembly.

Agriculture’s vulnerability to cyber-attacks was highlighted at the Africa Agri Tech conference in Pretoria this week. Billy Petzer, researcher of cyber security systems at the CSIR said, if risks were not mitigated, food supply could be heavily impacted.

The Agbiz/IDC Agribusiness Confidence Index has dropped five points to 44 in the first quarter of 2023, taking it to its lowest level since the second quarter of 2020 when COVID-19 restrictions were first implemented.